Shuffle, Skip and Replay
by Lamanth
Summary: DRABBLE COLLECTION – Because if life were a movie it would have the most epic soundtrack ever.
1. Bang-Bang

'**Bang-Bang' by Cher**

_Seasons came and changed the time,_

_And I grew up, I called him mine,_

_You would always laugh and say,_

_"remember when we used to play",_

_Bang bang, I shot you down,_

_Bang bang, you hit the ground,_

_Bang bang, that awful sound,_

_Bang bang, I used to shoot you down,_

* * *

"… first day I got my license, it's the greatest day. It's also the first day I had sex." Jesse said, and she could hear Leon, Dom and Brain laughing good-naturedly. "I shit you not."

"Something about learning how to drive." Dom was saying as she rolled out from under the Corvette that she was working on while the guys lazed away. "You're a driver or you're not a driver. Up until the point you start driving is one life time and then after you start driving is another life time."

"So, who taught you to drive Letty?" Brian question when he saw her sit up and take in the four of them. Did she care that all of them were topless? Would Dom care that she cared?

"Who d'you think?" She responded, jerking her head in Dom's direction and the way her eyes lingered on him clearly made the subject of tops irrelevant.

"She was thirteen and I had to sit her on a cushion just so she could see over the wheel. And we had to sneak around cus my dad and everyone wanted to wait until she was fifteen. But she was born to be behind the wheel." Brian was glad that Dom was wearing sunglasses, it meant that while they could guess, none of them could actually see the look he was giving Letty.

"So how did you two end up together," The blond asked quickly, not because he especially wanted to know, but because he felt that unless interrupted the king of the streets might just decided to do his queen right then and there. "If you don't mind me asking."

"It's no big thing." She said with a shrug as she tucked an errant stand of hair behind an ear. "I grew up down the street and was always hanging around and then one day we just kinda –"

"She shot me." Dom dead paned his dark eyes, still hidden behind his shades, still fixed on Letty, who was trying and failing to fight a smirk.

He therefor failed to see the reaction the undercover cop had to his words. Brian's blue eyes had widened in shock and were instantly drawn to the scar he had seen on the left side of Dom's torso. It just grazed over one of his ribs and while it could have been cause by a lot of things it could also have been from a gunshot. He also recalled the gun that had been visible on the table the first time he's entered the Toretto house.

"Shit man." Jesse gasped and almost fell from the roof of the Toyota Supra as he stared in open-mouthed shock at Brian and his exclamation was enough to divert Dom and Letty from one another.

"Oh for fucks sake Brian!" Letty yelled and threw a grease rag in his direction when she saw just how pale he had turned. She also noted how he couldn't seem to keep his eyes from the scar Dom had gotton falling off of his bike aged eleven. "I was sixteen and I shot him with a water pistol. Jeeze!"

"Oh, right." The blond said, nodding as if he had known all along that they'd meant something like that. The relief in his tone however, made it clear that even if only for a moment, he'd thought they had been serious.

"Way to scare the new kid boss. We all know your lady's crazy." Leon said sniggering so much that he damn near managed to choke himself on his beer. Pity he didn't succeed.

Letty just scowled at them all in turn, Leon and Jesse sniggering, Brian still looking pale, and Dom sporting an expression that could only be called smug. Brows furrowed in disgust she vanished back under the car she'd been working on.

"Besides," Her voice echoed, sounding distorted thanks to the Corvette she was lying under and irritated because she was. "If I had really shot him, he'd be dead."

* * *

(A/N) This is not the second drabble collection I was talking about, but I can't resist these music challenge things and when this song came on the idea just came to me. The start of this is an actual deleted scene if you want to see them all topless.

Lamanth xx


	2. Call Me Maybe

'**Call Me Maybe' by Carly Rae Jepsen**

_Your stare was holdin',_

_Ripped jeans, skin was showin',_

_Hot night, wind was blowin',_

_Where you think you're going, baby?_

_Hey, I just met you, And this is crazy,_

_But here's my number, So call me, maybe?_

* * *

When Dom had pulled open the front door, he had not been expecting to see a well put together latina in tight fitting dark blue jeans and a olive green tank top. That wasn't to say he was disappointed, far from it in fact. The girl turned to him, stray stands of dark hair, which had escaped her pony tale, falling into her face. She had dark eyes, high cheekbones and the sort of full mouth that looked as if it should always be kissing or smirking.

"Hey." He said shifting slightly so he could lean his weight against the doorframe. There were rips in his jeans, but he knew he looked good in them and the white muscle shirt was very good at drawing attention to his arms, all that time spent pumping iron had paid off. Dom knew he was showing off but didn't care the girl on his doorstep was pretty gorgeous.

"Oh umm, Hi." She said sounding a little unsure as her dark eyes swept over him, but if the smile she gave was any indication then she liked what she saw. Her teeth were white and even and he bet her mouth currently tasted of mint.

"You came!" Dom felt a stab of annoyance at the sound of his sister's voice, he hadn't even found out the girl's name yet. And Mia had a nasty habit of running interference any time he showed the slightest in one of her friends. A less generous brother might have thought she didn't trust him.

"Yeah, well you said." She said with a smile and a one shouldered shrug as if she wasn't quite sure how she had ended up outside the Toretto house on the hot summer evening. And the truth was, she wasn't. She'd been shifting boxes from the house to the garage and back again when the dark haired girl had just shown up.

Mia had a nice smile and was warm and welcoming and it was so easy to chat with her. So when she'd invited her around to a party/BBQ thing going on at her house that evening it was just so easy to say yes. Apparently the one thing she'd forgot to mention was that the person opening the door would look like one of the more exciting class of super hero. It had been a miracle that she hadn't just stated to drool while her tongue just lolled out her mouth.

"That's great." Mia said as she grabbed the girl's hand and proceeded to pull her into the house. The fact that the doorway was standard size and her brother was still standing in it, and she therefor had to drag her new friend past him didn't bother her at all.

Dom felt his skin tingle slightly as for a brief moment he found himself pressed close against the dark haired girl. She smelled good he noted, like vanilla and cinnamon, and wondered how he could go about finding himself pressed against her again. From the dusky rose colour that slightly tinted her cheeks, he guessed she would be averse to sharing more doorways with him.

"Little introduction perhaps Mia?" He called out stalling his sister before she could drag her newly acquired friend off. If he let her escape now he knew Mia would do everything in her power to keep Dom from finding out anything about the dark haired girl, if only out of sisterly spite.

"Ugh fine. Dom this is Letty, who just moved in down the street." Mia said with a smile that was anything but friendly, he'd have to remember to lock his bedroom door tonight, before rolling her eyes she turned to Letty and jerked a thumb in her brother's direction. "Letty this is Dom my brother feel free to act as if he isn't really here, I know I do."

"No fair Mia." He said to their retreating backs, determined not to let Mia have it all her own way and also to let Letty know his interest, she could brush him off herself if she wanted. "You didn't even give me a chance to get her number."

"Ignore him," Mia hissed loudly pulling Letty even further away from her brother and in the general direction of the kitchen, loud music and ice cold corona. "He's a skirt chaser."

"Don't worry," Letty replied casually as she glanced back over her shoulder, gracing Dom with both a wink and a sly smile. "I prefer jeans."

* * *

(A/N) It's a fun song so it's a fun drabble. And I always picture a younger Mia making it her mission in life to annoy Dom as much as possible, it's what little sisters are for. Hope you'll like it. Lamanth xx


	3. Boston

'**Boston' by Augustana**

_In the light of the sun, is there anyone? Oh it has begun..._

_Oh dear you look so lost, eyes are red and tears are shed,_

_This world you must've crossed... she said..._

_You don't know me, you don't even care, oh yeah,_

_She said you don't know me, and you don't wear my chains... oh yeah,_

_Essential yet appealed, carry all your thoughts across,_

_An open field, when flowers gaze at you,_

_They're not the only ones who cry when they see you,_

* * *

"Dom…" Her voice is thick and choked, making her sound as if she's screamed her throat raw, which she had, when he finally picks up on the other end.

"Mia," And even though he can hear the pain in her voice, and it tells him that something is very wrong, he can't quite keep the irritation out of his voice. She's taking such a huge risk calling him. "I told you not to call me here."

"Dom, its Letty," She says the one thing she knows will stop him dead no matter what he's doing or saying. "She's gone."

"Gone." All he can do is parrot the last word back at his sister, because while the words are short and simple the meaning behind them completely eludes him. "What d'you mean, gone?"

"I… I…" She starts but has to stop because a lump has formed in the back of her throat and trying to force the words out makes her feel as if she is choking. If she closes her eyes she can still see Letty moving around the room. Small and determined, her face set as she packed her few belongings in a duffel bag and ignored all of Mia's pleas for her not to go.

"Mia." Her name is a clipped command and she has to respond, but there is a part of her doesn't want to tell him, to explain, even though that's why she called. She doesn't want to put it into words because once she says it out loud it will be final. It won't be a bad dream she still might wake from Letty really will be gone.

"She's left," Her voice sounds dead and listless, and he wonders just how many hours she had to spend crying her heart out before she managed to call him. "She's left us and she's not coming back."

"Where…." He starts but has to stop because it suddenly feels as if the world is spinning out of control and a wave of dizziness hits him, so strong that he almost sways on the spot. "Where's she gone?"

"She wouldn't tell me." The words are spoken in a trembling whisper and he can almost swear he can hear her tears start to form and fall. "She wouldn't tell me Dom and I don't know what to do."

The tears take her then and she is shocked because she didn't think she had any left to shed, hours and hour of crying, sitting under the spray of the shower until the water turned icy cold. She had thought she had cried herself out. She slumps to the floor, rocking back and forth as she cradles the handset tightly. His voice floating to her from thousands of miles away, reassuring her that everything will work out. She lets him even though she knows he's wrong because everyone is always leaving her and she can never manage to find the right words to make them stay.

"It'll be alright, I promise it'll be alright." He says it softly, soothingly, over and over again and waits long enough for her calm down before he hangs up.

Perhaps it is a cruel thing to do, she's his baby sister and she's just lost her best friend. She needs his comfort and reassurance, even though they're miles apart she needs to know she's not alone. But how can he reassure her when he can't even get a grip on his own feelings and emotions.

The logical part of him, the part that made him leave his Letty in the first place, tells him that this is a good thing. This is what he wanted after all, her safe and out of danger, in a place where nothing and no one can get to her. That was why he had left her, to keep her safe. But safe meant L.A. with Mia in the house where, for all intents and purposes, all of them had grown up. It meant that even though they weren't together, they were still connected, apart but not separated.

His first reaction is that it's impossible, the one that is pure instinct and comes from somewhere beyond retinal thought. Mia must have got it wrong, stressed, strung out and over wrought it would only be right for her to misunderstand the situation, because Letty wouldn't leave them. She wouldn't leave him.

But even as he tells himself this in his head he can see it all so clearly. Her face set and her hands steady as she packs, slow and steady. Every move and action carefully planed. There would be no yells or screams, she's not the type. And of course there would be no tears, she left every single one she had on a beach in the Dominican.

Some part of him is still trying to say that it's for the best but it is being drowned out by the part that is screaming. Not in words or even concessive thought just a long drawn out howl of primal agony because how can he live in a world without her.

He can't believe it, he won't believe it, but in his head he can picture her walking away, leaving it all behind. Their room, their home, and the life they had once shared.

* * *

(A/N) This is because even though I love Dom and Letty, I think she must have been some kind of saint to do what she did. I doubt that one of us would be able to fight for the freedom of the man who left us the way she did. Plus I think Dom would find her leaving him harder to deal with than her dying.

Lamanth xx


	4. Stronger

For Shawnied777

* * *

'**Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)' by Kelly Clarkson**

_Thanks to you I got a new thing started,_

_Thanks to you I'm not the broken-hearted,_

_Thanks to you I'm finally thinking about me,_

_You know in the end the day you left was just my beginning,_

_In the end..._

_What doesn't kill you makes you stronger,_

_Stand a little taller,_

_Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone,_

_What doesn't kill you makes a fighter,_

_Footsteps even lighter,_

_Doesn't mean I'm over cause you're gone,_

* * *

Eight months, it had taken eight long hard months for him to finally track her down. Somehow he had managed to forget that she was just as good at running as he was, after all she too had spent years doing little else. Time and again he had almost had her, but she always managed to stay just one step ahead of him.

After Mia's heartbreaking call he had dropped everything and run home, police be damned this was one of those times when he couldn't stay away. From there it had been three weeks before he tracked her to Boston, but by the time he got there, he couldn't just drive across state lines the way that she could, she was already gone. It was almost like a game of chase after that, she went everywhere almost, criss-crossing both North and South America. On one occasion she actually crossed over into Canada, and twice he followed her to Mexico. But always he got there just too late.

People he met had stories about the dark haired young woman with the 70 Plymouth Road Runner, they'd never seen a little girl drive so fast. She'd blow into town, throw whatever race scene she came across into chaos, and then blow out just as quickly. She'd surfed in Hawaii and gone horseback riding in Montana. She'd been in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and then skipped off to Brazil the moment he got to close.

But after eight months of endless chasing he had tracked her to Puerto Rico and this time it looked as if she was finally done running.

The races where just the same as hundreds he'd seen. Different country, different continent, it didn't matter the culture was the same wherever he went. People might change but racers would always stay the same.

Scantily clad girls laughing and talking, dancing and pressing against each other and any guy who got close enough. Guys were standing around in groups, watching girls, examining engines watching the three cars speeding down a quarter mile. And there were the cars. All shapes and sizes. as brightly coloured as any birds of paradise. A rainbows worth of high performance cars and each and every one of them tuned to perfection.

And there in the centre of the gathering, the one car that didn't quite fit in with the others. The dark green muscle car, with paint-work that was a little neglected and a slight dent in the front bumper. There was road dust on the windows and license plate and he didn't doubt for a moment that it could out perform every other car there. And there on the hood of the 70 Plymouth, in black leather pants and black tank top, sat the woman he had scoured an enter continent to fine.

The sight of her was like a kick in the gut. Dom had thought that he knew her like the back of his hand. That he had every detail of her committed to memory, every inch of her was known and familiar to him. But he was wrong, so wrong. She was more beautiful than he thought possible, it was the same face he remembered, same mouth, same eyes, but it all came together in a way that left him almost breathless.

How had he found the strength to leave her? Dom found himself wondering as he walked towards her. He kept his eyes on her as he closed the space between them, irrationally scared that if he blinked she would simply vanish. Her dark eyes regarded him coolly as he approached, her expression neutral and giving away nothing of what she felt at seeing him again.

"Letty –" Dom started as soon as he was close enough, but she cut him off before he could say more than her name.

"Should have known you'd show up as soon as I stopped moving." She sounded amused, but not happy, and while it was true she was smiling the expression wasn't exactly a friendly one.

For a moment Dom found himself at a loss for words. He'd spent so much time and effort tracking her down but hadn't actually stopped to think what would happen when he eventually found her. Somewhere in the back of his mind had been the idea that she would just fall into his arms and they'd both promise to never be apart again.

"Letty," He said her name again partly because he didn't know how else to start, but also because it had been so long since he had said it while looking at her. "I've spent so long looking for you."

"Well you've found me," She sounded board as well as amused this time, and didn't bother to try and hide her eye roll from his view. "What d'you want? A medal?"

"How about an explanation?" He snapped back, even after so long it was so easy to fight with her. Letty was all hard edges and cutting tones, he'd followed her like a lovesick dog and all she could give him was sarcastic comments.

"Hey, you're the one who left me remember, not the other way around." Letty didn't yell back, as she once would have, instead her tone was light making it sound as if she were only just managing to keep from laughing in his face.

"I was trying to keep you safe, you know that." There was an edge of pleading in his voice but Dom didn't care, she had to have known why he left her the way he had. Why he had no other choice, she had to be able to understand that.

"What do I know?" Letty raised her open palms to heaven as if hoping for divine intervention. "You made up your mind, and didn't even listen to anything I had to say. I would have stayed with you no matter what, through everything, but you didn't even give me a chance."

"I had to do the right thing, for both of us." He brought a hand up to rub over his face and head, wishing he could rub away the pain of recollection as easily. "I didn't want to leave you, but –"

"You know," Letty cut across him for the second time, she didn't want to hear how hard his leaving had been for him, it didn't matter, he'd still left. "Until I woke up and found you gone, I never really thought you'd let me go. But you did."

"Excuse me. Letty," Dom turned and glared at the interruption, but the guy, dark haired and olive skinned, completely ignored him, keeping his bright green eyes fixed on Letty. "We're ready for you now."

"Great," She said with a nod and a smile in his direction as she jumped off the hood of the Plymouth, before addressing Dom once more. "I gotta race."

The dismissal in her tone was unexpected and caught him so off guard that she was already reaching for the drivers door before Dom realised what was going on. He was at her side in three strides and yanked her round to face him. If she thought he would just let her run off and leave him again, after all he had gone through to find her, then she was greatly mistaken. Then recollection dawned, she wasn't running anymore, the question was why not. He really didn't like the obvious answer that presented its self.

"Just one thing, before you go." If Letty was effected by the barely suppressed anger in his voice, or the tight grip that he had on her, she didn't show it. "You've stopped running, why? Is there someone else?"

"Of course there's someone else Dom," She snapped and yanked her arm out of his grip, her eyes flashing with some dark ugly emotion. "There's always been someone else. Me."

He stared at her in confusion, not understanding what she was saying. And the blank look was so heart wrenching, like that of a puppy who wasn't sure if it was about to get a pat or a rolled up newspaper, that Letty felt compelled to explain it to him. Explain what it had taken her months and his abandonment to work out.

"It's always been me Dom, I was just always too wrapped up in you to know it." Something in her face softened slightly at the admission, and for a moment she looked just like the Letty he'd always known. "Then you left me, and amazingly it wasn't the end of the world. Maybe I should thank you, because when you left I had to stop being 'Dom's Girl', I became Letty Ortiz and I love her. And I won't give her up, not for you or anyone else."

All Dom could do was stare at her as she calmly climbed behind the wheel of Plymouth Road Runner and then drove for the starting line. The little girl who had lived down the street had gone, as had the girl who had stayed by his side until he left her in the middle of the night. In her place was someone new and different, a woman in control of her life and happy with who she was. The new Letty didn't need him the way the old one had, he wasn't sure if she even wanted him.

* * *

(A/N) I've tried to write this several times but just end up trying to explain myself, which helps no one. End of the day I love the song, thought it was perfect for Letty and with help came up with a workable setting. Hope all you Dotty fans like it, I see her giving her a hard time for a few weeks then them getting back together.

Lamanth xx


	5. My First Kiss

For Zoe - Your reviews always make me smile.

* * *

'**My First Kiss' by 3OH!3 ft. Ke$ha**

_With your name in a heart tattooed upon the shoulders,_

_Your kiss is like whiskey it get's me drunk,_

_And I wake up in the morning with the taste of your tongue,_

_In the back of the car on our way to the bar,_

_I got you on my lips, I got you on my lips,_

_At the foot of the stairs with my fingers in your hair,_

_Baby, this is it_

* * *

Truth or dare was one of those idiotic games that were fun to play up until the age of about fourteen, after which it just became stupid. That was of course unless the participants were sufficiently buzzed either from alcohol, drugs or adrenaline, or a combination of the three. Then it once again became, not just just but bloody amazing. They had introduced the 'spin the bottle' aspect out of some sense of fair play, and because Mia kept picking on whatever girl Dom happened to bring home.

The youngest Toretto could be quite cruelly inventive when she put her mind to it and probably had something horrific in mind for the redhead currently clinging to her brother. Her eyes were narrwoed in anticipation as she waited to see where her spin would leave the empty corona bottle pointing. But when the clear glass finally came to a halt it was not pointed at Mia's desired target but rather at her, not entirely sober, best friend.

Never the less Mia was always quick to adapt to a change in circumstances, she had there for already thought of three truths and two possible dares when she voiced the question, "So Letty… Truth or dare?"

Letty eyed her friend carefully and then glanced around at the assembled company as she took a pull from the beer in her hand. Dom, Leon and Vince where there as well as herself and Mia, there were also four girls who had followed the boys home. Oh and Jesse was passed out in a corner a half-smoked joint still clutched in one hand. Decisions, decisions.

"Hmm," Letty's eyes returned to her friend, since there were certain truths she didn't want revealed in front of skanks she'd better play it safe. "Dare."

"Dare her to kiss you Mia." Vince called out instantly, because hope sprung eternal and there was nothing the average male liked batter than to watch two attractive girls getting it on. Dom would have hit him if he could, but since he was out of reach settled for smacking Leon who was nodding in agreement. Would they never get the message that his sister was out of bounds, even to Letty.

"Piss off." Mia responded tartly without taking her eyes off of her friend as a wicked smile spread across her face. "Though perhaps… I dare you to kiss… Dom."

"The hell, girl!?" Letty blurted honestly shocked by her friend's words, while in the background Leon complained to an unfeeling world that it should have been him, no one ever dared pretty girls to kiss him. No one bothered to point out that if the only way he could get girls to kiss him was to dare them something was seriously off.

"You heard me." Mia said with a smirk, though now all her attention was focused on her big brother who was giving her a look that was hard for her to read even after years of cohabitation. He didn't look angry or happy, more like curious, but he hadn't opened his mouth to object.

"Not chicken are you, Leticia?" Vince taunted, making wing actions with his arms in her direction, as the teen carefully set her corona down and got slowly to her feet. She was scowling so darkly he wondered briefly if she might not just accidentally on purpose bite Dom as well, just out of spite. Kinky.

"Fuck off Vince." Letty snapped at him and tried, and failed, to kick him as she walked across to where Dom sprawled on the sofa. The scowling redhead was glued to his side her green eyes fixed on Letty and promising murder.

She offered the glaring skank a smile that was just like the one a great-white-shark would give a drowning man, before returning her attention to Dom who showed no sign of moving. "You gonna get your ass up?"

"Nope." He said not quiet smiling up at her where she stood over him. He did however remove his arm from around the girl siting net to him, a move she wasn't to happy about but his eyes were too focused of Letty to notice much.

Letty just hissed and muttered under her breath something that just might have been 'stupid dick' and then leaned down to press her mouth to his. She had skills, she knew it and wasn't above putting them into practise especially when Dom had given her such a smug look. She'd give him something to be smug about, just see if she didn't.

Her mouth was warm, her lips active and grasping. Letty felt Dom start in shock, he clearly hadn't been expecting her to be able to kiss, and happily took advantage to caress his tongue with hers. Letty felt his hands settled lightly on her waist and just had time to wonder what he was doing before Dom gave a swift tug and she found herself straddling him. He held her close to him, his arms around her back holing her securely in his lap.

Somewhere off in the background she could hear Mia giggling, Letty also heard the redhead mewl in protest when her knee struck the skank as Dom pulled her even closer. He shifted slightly, trying to match her energy, move his lips with hers. The rhythm she set was surprisingly easy for him to pick up, and he felt the heat of attraction burn through his body.

Letty could feel him work one of his hands up the length of her back until he managed to tangle his fingers into her mass of wild dark hair. He then used the added leverage to deepen the kiss even further. If her mouth had been free Letty knew she would have been smirking, as her lips well occupied she settled for rolling her hips tightly into Dom's. He responded to her actions by increasing the pressure on the back of her head and growling hungrily into her mouth while his other hand shifted to cup her ass.

Sensing that things were reaching the point of no return, Letty continued the kiss for a few more beats of her heart before she began slowly pulling away. It was funny how Dom followed her movement, chasing her lips with his, only opening his eyes when she finally moved out of reach. She contemplated him for a moment while he got his breath back, though he couldn't seem to keep his eyes from her swollen lips, which in turn meant Letty couldn't keep from smirking.

"Well now," Dom said eventually, looking up at her where she sat in his lap with considerable interest. She had surprised him no end with that little stunt and the look on her face said she knew it. "Where d'you learn to kiss like that?"

"Did I say truth?" She questioned slyly and quickly extricated herself from his embrace and slithered from his lap making sure to give an extra shimmy of her hips as she did. Even if she had been blind, which she wasn't, she would have been aware of the interest she had aroused in him. She'd felt it pressed firmly against her thigh after all.

* * *

(A/N) This is just one of those songs that got stuck in my head and then I started thinking what Dom and Letty's first kiss might have been like. And I just love the idea of Mia as the master manipulator, the girl always has a plan. Dotty forever!

Lamanth xx


	6. Reproduction

For dandani

* * *

'**Reproduction' by Grease 2 (Soundtrack)**

_Reproduction, reproduction!_

_Hope he's proud of what he's done._

_Reproduction, reproduction!_

_He was only pokin' fun._

_Reproduction!_

_See what happens when a boy and girl_

_Don't know how to play it safe?_

_Reproduction, reproduction!_

_Reproduction!_

_Where does the pollen go?_

* * *

How was it she had ended up in a situation like this? Mia asked herself. Out of the two of them it was Letty who was meant to be the more mature one. She was the tough tomboy, who could kick ass and take names; Letty was the one who had her life all up and together. She had a job she loved, the guy she loved and a home life that she wouldn't trade for the world. Mia was meant to be the scatty one she was the uni student after all, if something like this was going to happen it should be happening to her.

But yet here they were hogging the bathroom. Not that either of them really cared, this was important after all. Besides if one of the guys needed a slash there was always the back yard. They'd used it plenty when they were too intoxicated to make it up the stairs. So Mia and Letty sat in nervous expectation waiting to see just what fate had in store.

Mia was sat on the closed toilet while Letty was perched on the edge of the tub. She was kicking on leg against the side of it in an annoying rhythm that was really starting to get on her friend's nerves. The girl could sit at a start line facing down a quarter mile of speed and adrenaline and be as cool as if ice water were running threw her veins, but she was bouncing on the edge of the tub like at any moment she'd bounce right across the room.

"Has it been two minuets yet?" She questioned and thankfully rested her foot back on the floor. Mia just had time to breathe a sign of relief before she started to kick the bath with the other leg. It was a pity you weren't allowed to kill best friends for being pains in the ass.

"Only just been one." Mia said calmly when what she really wanted to do was scream. Maybe living life ten seconds at a time made it difficult to judge the passage of time, perhaps that was why her brother was always running late. Speaking of Dom…

"And that's time." She glanced at Letty, who showed no sign of leaving her seat except by possibly bouncing herself onto the floor, and picked up the home pregnancy test. "And the answer is –"

The horrific bang echoed around the small room and Mia screamed in shocked surprise and almost dropped the test. The bathroom door had been thrown open with such force that it crashed loudly against the wall and had actually managed to crack two of the wall tiles. Letty had also jumped violently at Dom's sudden and unexpected, not to mention unwelcome, appearance and only quick reflexes had prevented her from falling ass over apex backwards into the bath tub.

"What the hell is this!?" Dom roared like a wild animal as he snatched the little white stick from his sister's hand. Mia shook her hand, trying to ease the throbbing in her fingers because he'd damn near taken a couple of them off too. She scowled and thought that if his rage was any indication he already knew full well what it was and was asking just for the sake of it. She also wish either she or Letty had thought to lock the bathroom door, not that it would have done much good.

"What do you think it is." Letty muttered sarcastically, still trying to regain her balance on the bath, but she was completely ignored. Dom had gone for zero to homicidal in 2.3 seconds and was therefore completely blind to anything and everything but his sister and the pregnancy test she'd been holding and he was now glaring at. Tunnel vision at its best, and most unhelpful.

"Pregnant!?" He looked at the test, gleefully displaying its message for the whole world to see. "You're fucking pregnant!" It was one of those easy to read tests so even without having to look at the instructions he knew what it meant. It meant his sister was no better than some of the girls who hung around the race scene, girls who were only after one thing and only had themselves to blame when they got knock up. His sister was a slut, the thought made him feel physically ill.

"The hell I am!" She roared back, her Italian heritage rushing to the fore, just liked her brother Mia was not the sort of person to back down from a fight. With Mia it was just that it was less likely to end up getting physical, though Letty thought she looked wild enough to take a shampoo bottle to her brother's bald head. Could you crack a man's skull with a bottle of 2in1?

"What!? You gonna try and tell me it's wrong!?" Dom scoffed derisively, using his height to look down on her with expression of utter disgust on his face. Just what type of guys had she been messing around with? When he found out who was responsible there would be hell to pay.

"No!" Mia snarled back with equal venom, now extremely pissed off because how dare he look at her like that. She could see what he was thinking, it was written all over his face, as if he was in any position to judge her. "I'm gonna tell you it's not my God damn test!"

"Not yours!?" Dom spat in disbelief his eyes flicking around the small room before if searching for an imaginary person that Mia's test could belong to.

But rather than an invisible person his eyes came to rest on Letty. It was clear from his expression that up until that moment he hadn't actually been aware she was there. The anger faded from his eyes and the tension eased from tightly wound muscles. Dom's jaw actually went slack as he stared at her in wide-eyed fascination. Mia would later swear she could almost hear the pieces clicking into place inside her brother's head, they sure had enough room to move around in.

"Yeah, it's not mine." Mia sounded happily vindictive as she too turned to face the third person in the room. She could see from the glint in Letty's eyes that she'd had to bit her lip to keep from laughing at Dom's display of temper. Especially as it wasn't Mia's test and he was the one who had done the knocking up.

"But if it's not Mia's…?" He trailed off unable to take his eyes from Letty who was still perched on the edge of the tub her weight resting on her arms and hair falling in her face where it had escaped from her ponytail.

"You might want to think real hard," Letty cautioned him, her dark eyes impassive and her face giving nothing away. "Before you open your mouth again… Papi."

* * *

(A/N) The song came on and the idea just popped into my head. I can just picture Dom jumping to the wrong conclusion, building up this big head of steam them Mia hitting him with the truth like a fish to the face. All Letty needs is a tub of popcorn so she can really enjoy the show. Thanks for all the support, you guys are the best.

Lamanth xx


	7. Gunpowder and Lead

For Isis - signedout reviews are love

* * *

'**Gunpowder and Lead' by Miranda Lambert**

_I'm going to show him what a little girls are made of,_

_Gunpowder and lead,_

_His fist is big but my gun's bigger'_

_He'll find out when I pull the trigger,_

_I'm goin' home, gonna load my shotgun,_

_Wait by the door and light a cigarette,_

_If he wants a fight well now he's got one,_

_And he ain't seen me crazy yet,_

* * *

"So this is what you drop my sister for?" Johnny Tran spat in disgust, waving a hand in Letty's general direction. "A silly little daddy's girl."

Letty snarled in outrage and would have lunged for the bastard if Dom hadn't beaten her to it, fist aimed at Tran's jaw. She also found herself stumbling to the side as Vince pushed passed her making for the guy's cousin. From there it descended into absolute mayhem. Never one to be left out Leon dived headfirst into the brawl and grabbed one guy by the throat while taking a wild swing at another. Mia was doing her best to keep Jesse from following suit, scared that the kid would get his head kicked in if he joined the fight.

Dom and Johnny were on the ground in the centre of the group, each intent of killing the other while all around them fists flew, legs kicked and heads butted. Vince and Leon were out numbered two to one and were heading for a world of pain. One gangly built Asian from Tran's merry little band broke away, heading straight for Jesse and Mia. Evidently liking the idea of an easier target. But was unlucky enough to run directly into Jesse's right hook and then twist round only to be greeted by Letty's uppercut coming from the opposite direction.

Enough of this shit Letty thought and dived towards Dom's car, managing to land a satisfyingly hard kick on Lance's shin as she passed. She yanked the passenger door open roughly and scrabbled threw the contents of the glove box. She could hear Mia yelling something as her hand made contact with cold metal and was out of the car just in time to see her friend slapping Tran's little sister, the bitch who'd started everything, so hard that she stumbled backwards and almost fell.

Some how she managed to regain her balance and neon streaked hair flying lunged at Mia. The youngest Toretto screamed like a banshee and lashed out at her advisory, her fingers hooked like claws as she went for the other girl's face. Letty winced at the sight and decided right then and there never to upset her friend if she could help it, the girl was vicious. But Mia's yell had distracted Dom just long enough to allow Johnny the upper hand

Letty shoved her way through the fighting masses, almost getting waylaid by one of Tran's companions. But he quickly lost interest in her when Jesse jumped on his back and started hitting him round the head. She dodged left, ducked right and was suddenly standing over Tran, who had managed to get a hand around Dom's throat, and wasted no time burring the noise of the gun in his hair.

"Stop it, now." Her voice wasn't loud but it cut through the sound of fighting. Like ripples on a pond silence spread out around her, until the only sound left was that of Tran's sister whimpering as she nursed her scratched and bloody cheek.

"You don't have it in you." Johnny Tran hissed as he felt the gun barrel press even more firmly against the back of his skull, but he did release the hold that he had on Dom and climb slowly to his feet. Letty traced him every inch of the way, her hand never wavering.

"Try me." She said, her voice calm and even, punctuated by the click of her snapping off the safety. "I'm a daddy's girl… remember?"

She was a real daddy's girl, Letty knew it and was proud of the fact. And when he was on leave he'd taught her everything, from how to do an oil change to how to make a bed with military precision and braid her hair so it stayed out of her face all day. He'd taught her how to throw a punch and how to hold her breath underwater for three and a half minuets. And he'd also taught her how to shoot.

"You're gonna pay for this Toretto." Tran snarled even as Letty walked slowly round him, the barrel of the gun still aimed at him until she came to a stop aiming right between his eyes.

"Maybe, but not today." Letty smiled, or at least the corners of her mouth lifted, it was not a friendly expression. "Runaway… now."

And run they did, there wasn't really another option. Everyone knew that while Dominic Toretto had a temper and got into plenty of fights he wasn't just some stupid thug. Everyone also knew that Leticia Ortiz was his girl and she was completely crazy.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Ya know, I really shouldn't like that you just did that," Dom said as he looped an arm around her waist and pulled her close against him. "But I kinda do."

"Crazy lady." Vince muttered to the world in general. Leon and Jesse were nursing various cuts and bruises, ranging from a black eye to a busted lip, and Mia was trying to clean blood out from under her nails. Dom and Letty were focusing on each other to the exclusion of everything things else and his knuckles were sore and in need of ice.

"Would she have really shot him?" Mia asked as she sidled up to Vince. She was starting to tremble as the adrenaline left her system, in about ten minuets she'd probably get all weepy and then in another ten would be fine once more. She might be a teenage girl but she was also a Toretto, they were tough lot.

"I dunno," Vince looked over to where his best friend and the girl in question were enthusiastically making out, he put a comforting arm around Mia's shoulders and squeezed. "Maybe you should ask her… but wait till she puts the gun down."

* * *

(A/N) Yes Ok, OOC alert, I know. But I love the song and the idea of Letty with a gun is just so hot. And it was either this or some version that involved Dom going home and Letty opening the door while holding a shotgun. I'm crazy, we know this, but the prove the point I've set up a Dotty forum please feel free to check it out.

Lamanth xx


	8. This is Halloween

For yeahmendes

* * *

'**This is Halloween' by Marilyn Manson**

_Something's waiting now to pounce and how you'll scream,_

_This is Halloween, red 'n' black, slimy green,_

_Aren't you scared? Well, that's just fine,_

_Say it once, say it twice,_

_Take a chance and roll the dice,_

_Ride with the moon in the dead of night,_

_Everybody scream, everybody scream,_

_In our town of Halloween,_

* * *

The thing about Letty was she was different from all the other girls he knew. She was real and genuine and not the sort of girl who was for one night only. No, Letty was for keeps, which was why they had been taking their relationship slowly. Not that it was a relationship yet. It was slow flirting, and double entendre and standing closer together than they really needed to. It was pressing side to side when the looked under the hood of a care and casual touches that left them burning.

But it was all good, because it was Letty and he wanted to do it right. And he could because with her he had all the time in the world. That was up until he'd walked into the front room, which was acting as the main dance floor, and he had seen her through the smoke. At that point Dom realised time was up.

When Mia had first mentioned a Halloween party Dom hadn't be bothered one way or the other. His sister tended to get what she wanted and it was just easier to just give in to her demands and go with the flow. His father was away, and said as long as the house was still in one piece when he got back and no one called the cops they could do what they wanted. With in reason.

That had been the end of it as far as Dom had been concerned, or would have been if Mia hadn't somehow managed to convince Vince to help her organise everything. That also meant that Dom had got roped in to help. But even he had to admit it did look good. There were cobwebs hanging from the walls and ceiling and eerie green and orange lamps filled the whole house a weird half-light. There were plastic spiders, bats and rats all over the place and three huge plastic ravens hidden in unexpected places.

Alice Cooper was pouring from the sound system commanding the gathering to feed his Frankenstein, proving that this truly was a Halloween party. As if there could have been any doubt because someway somehow Vince had even managed to get his hands on a smoke machine. The dry ice filled the air with curling wisps of smoke and pieces of furniture keep appearing and disappearing like tombs in a graveyard. Which, no doubt, was just the effect Mia and Vince had been aiming for.

He had been on his way to find Mia and Vince, to tell them how amazing the house looked, when she just suddenly appeared through the swirling smoke. Mia had insisted on a fancy dress party, she said it was more fun, and at that moment Dom was inclined to agree with her. Letty all in black and red, a dark fairy that could have just walked out of any gothic fantasy dream, with a little red top hat perched atop her head. She was dancing alone, her body undulating, swaying back and forth to the beat, and she was seemingly oblivious to the group on onlookers who were practically drooling over her.

He couldn't blame them for staring, for there was no doubt that Letty looked absolutely incredible. The shot black skirt and black corset with red detailing expertly showed off her small yet lithe figure and gave her a delightful hourglass shape. Of course, for all her hard work, Mia still hadn't been able to separate Letty from her beloved black boots with flame decoration, but that didn't matter because they fitted with her dark fairy character. He shouldn't blame the guys for staring at her, he was staring at her too, but that didn't mean he wouldn't gouge their eyes out if he got the chance.

Dom hadn't really wanted to dress up for the party, but it was Halloween and it was fancy dress and also his sister had insisted. And Mia usually got what she wanted. But in deference to her brother she'd kept it simple for him and told him to dress in black jeans and muscle shirt, she'd then given him a pair of silver contact lenses. Apparently he was meant to be some sort of anti-hero from some Sci Fi film, he'd just gone along with it and ignored Mia when she said that Letty had a thing for the character in question. As if that mattered to him.

Dom moved through the crowed, not caring if people got jostled or if he trod on anyone's feet, all that mattered was getting to Letty. She was all he could see, her body dipping and swaying in time to the beat which seemed to fill the air and make it throb. When he reached her Letty gave him one slow up and down look, her hips still moving to the music, and then had to bit her lip to keep from making some witty comment. One pearly white canine tugged at her lower lip, painted to cherry red perfection.

He smiled catching her eye and… damn her eyes! Letty's eyes had always fascinated him, the way that her irises were so dark they seemed black and blended seamlessly with her pupils. They were the sort of eyes that could see right through him, and he could spend hours just staring into them. But now, Mia must have literally spent hours working with eyeliner and mascara to give them such an amazingly slanted cat like shape. His sister must then have spent just as long out lining those bottomless dark pools with ebony black, flaming reds and burning oranges. The over all effect was breath taking, the colours all coming together and making it seem as if her dark eyes were burning.

He reached out and took her hand in his, the finger less black leather gloves she wore felt cool and soft against his palm, instantly matching the rhythm she set. Letty smiled and an expression that managed to be both demur and wicked at the same time and twirled under his arm. The little black skirt whispered like silk against her thighs as she moved, and the small gossamer crimson wings Mia had fixed to her back brushed against him. The red spray-on glitter in her hair was little starry sparks of ruby fire in the semidarkness.

Alice Cooper faded only to be replaced by the Eagles singing about a 'Witchy Woman' which Dom felt was highly appropriate. The slower song meant that he could pull Letty closer, wrap his arms around her and feel her firm body moving against his. He held onto the scarlet belt at her waist with one hand, his fingers occasionally brushing the top of her ass, while the other arm curled around her lower back just under her black highlighted wings.

Slowly Letty trailed her hands up his bare arms, her glittering claret coloured false nails scraping tantalisingly against his skin, before she wound her arms around his neck. It was just so easy to dance with her in his arms, their bodies effortlessly moving in sync as the dipped and swayed. Dom bent her backwards, easily following the motion his chest brushing against her small breasts confined in dark silk and read lace. Before pulling her back up and holding her so close that her breath was a hot feather soft caress on his skin.

"That reminds me," Letty said a sly smile playing about her lips as she tilted her head to look up at him through thick sooty lashes. "I forgot to ask you."

"Ask me what?" Dom responded dipping his head towards her and breathing in the scent of her skin. Mia had obviously made her ware perfume, something dark and musky that made his mouth water.

Letty pressed even closer to him, every inch of her body in close contact with him as she raised herself on tiptoe so that she could whisper huskily into his ear, "Tick or treat, Dominic?"

His arms around her tightened, pulling her so tightly to him that he could feel the boning in her corset pressing into his flesh. Dom had wanted her before but with her softly voice tease his burning desire became a raging inferno. "I think I want both."

"Mmm," She hummed her appreciation, rolling her hips into his to show just how much she liked his suggestion. "Now that's a very good idea."

* * *

(A/N) Happy Halloween! This idea just came to me an hour ago while listening to Marilyn Manson so I hope you all like it. Also the opening lines of 'Witchy Woman' could almost have been written about Letty in this and I love the idea of Dom dressing up as Riddick. And please check out my Dotty forum, I'm lonely. Happy holidays all.

Lamanth xx


	9. So Cold

'**So Cold' by Nikisha Reyes-Pile**

_You caused my heart to bleed and you still owe me a reason,_

_I can't figure out why..._

_Oh, you can't hear me cry,_

_See my dreams all die,_

_From where you're standing,_

_On your own,_

_It's so quiet here and I feel so cold,_

_This house no longer feels like home,_

* * *

It was late, he thought as he looked at the glowing numbers of that clock that sat on the chest of draws by his bedside. Half three in the morning late, so maybe it was really early? Either way it was long past the time when he should have been asleep, and he needed his sleep. These days he was always tired and fatigued and sleep seemed always just out of reach.

Sighing he rolled himself out of bed, careful not to disturb the redhead who slumbered contentedly next to him. Her crimson hair flowing like a river of blood over the white pillow. Not that she would have minded if he had woke her, she didn't mind anything he did or said. It was a facet of her personality that had previously pleased him but that now grated on his nerves. He didn't like the fact that she saw him as perfect, he wasn't. Far from it.

He moved quietly across to the window, drew back the curtains so that cold moonlight filled the room. Then he threw the window open so the frigid air also filled the room. The icy breeze raised goosebumps on his arms and bare torso and caused his breath to hang like fog before his face. It wasn't until he had his arms on the sill and his head out in the night that he saw the solitary figure on the sidewalk.

She heard the sound, a soft grating that carried on the chill night air. She recognised the direction from which it had come, but it was too late because she was already turning to face the sound. She could see him framed in the window of _his_ room, a room she had once thought of as theirs. He half raised a hand as if he meant to reach out to her but she didn't give him the chance.

He let his hand fall back of the windowsill as she spun away and quickly resumed heading down the street. She couldn't get away fast enough and that hurt him more than anything else ever could. All he had wanted was to be there for her, for them to be a real team, a partnership. But she was just too stubborn and wouldn't allow him to help her, wouldn't even admit that she needed help.

The fight and subsequent break up had been horrific, messy and painful for all concerned. And all the worse because it had been over nothing, her stupid pride and independence and her refusal to admit that maybe she couldn't make it all on her own. Something was wrong with her home life, her parents, but she wouldn't tell him or let him get close enough to support her. And he knew that mostly it was because she didn't want him to see her weak, as if he ever could.

Both of them had said things they shouldn't have, cruel and hurtful things that could never be unsaid no matter how much they both might wish it was different. So he tossed and turned unable to sleep in a bed next to a girl he couldn't love because she wasn't her. And she walked the empty streets in the early hours.

He watched as she slowly vanished from his sight swallowed by darkness and shadow. From the first moment they got together he had pictured them spending the rest of their lives together, growing old together in this house. But now she was gone and the house that had been his home for all his life didn't feel like home anymore.

The chill wind caught at the curtains, sending them billowing backwards into his room and caused the figure in his bed to murmur in her sleep. The wind and the sound chilled him instantly. He shivered, as the cold spread through his skin, sinking into his bones and icing over his heart.

* * *

(A/N) This was going to be the other way round, with Dom leaving Letty, but this just worked better. I don't know why but I can see Letty letting her pride rule her life to the point where it ends up hurting her. And I'm sorry for the delay in updating and lack of response to reviews, but the fact is I'm a lazy bitch. Sorry.

Lamanth xx


	10. Bitch

For all my loyal readers, sorry for the long wait.

* * *

'**Bitch' by Meredith Brooks**

_I'm a little bit of everything all rolled into one,_

_I'm a bitch, I'm a lover,_

_I'm a child, I'm a mother,_

_I'm a sinner, I'm a saint,_

_I do not feel ashamed,_

_I'm your health, I'm your dream,_

_I'm nothing in between,_

_You know you wouldn't want it any other way,_

* * *

"What the hell is she doing here?" Dom hissed in a low voice as he pulled his sister around non-too gently and pointed at the dark haired girl on the other side of the bar. She was last person on earth he had expected or been prepared to see.

"She's my friend too," Mia snapped with equal force before something in her face softened, making her look very vulnerable. "And I need her here for this."

He left it at that; the two girls had always been close and just because his relationship with her was now non-existent didn't mean his sister should forfeit her best friend. Not that Mia would have been willing to do so, not even for him. He should have known that even though she had completely vanished from his life eighteen months before she would have stayed in touch with Mia.

So he slunk off though the crowd, celebrating the engagement of Mia Toretto and Brian O'Conner to where his girlfriend waited. Anna Cavanaugh, the new person in his life, the one he was sure he would be able to build his future with. Tall and elegant with green eyes and whisky curls, beautiful and serene and everything she wasn't.

She was leather and motor oil and cheap cotton panties so it hadn't matter when he ripped them off of her with his teeth. Leather pants. Leather skirts. Clingy, practically see-through shirts that somehow never showed him quite enough. She wore leather boots and always had a stiletto blade tucked down the side of one. She was loud and obnoxious and cursed more than any other person he knew.

She was a bitch and a little slice of heaven on earth. She could do thirteen shots of Jack Daniel's and then still walk in a straight line while saying the alphabet backwards. She was a walking contradiction. A lover. A fighter. She hardly ever wore makeup and couldn't live without lip balm. She lived hard and fast and loved the same way. And slow, she'd loved him so slow that it drove him wild and made him burn. She pissed him off every other time she opened her mouth and he returned the favour.

They had fought a hell of a lot and made up more. She was messy. They were messy together and it had been perfect. Up until the point when it hadn't been, and he's not sure now how it went wrong because there were no fights, no screaming matches, no anything. They just drifted apart without either of them really noticing and one day they woke up and they just weren't together anymore.

Suddenly seeing her again he found himself wondering if that was the problem, if maybe he should have been fighting. Fighting tooth and nail, he should have screamed at her, fought for her, fought with her. They should have argued and screamed and he should have throw her out of his bed while threw him out of her mind. They should have done something, anything rather than just excepting it and drifting even further apart.

His footsteps were getting slower and slower and he could see Anna, her face perfectly made up and her brow furrowed in confusion as she watched him. Whisky coloured curls framed her face falling into her eyes and he was sure that if given enough time he could fall in love with her. With the girl who liked to sing show tunes in the shower and eat peanut butter and honey sandwiches and painted her toenails electric pink, he was sure he could.

He was about to take a step towards her when from behind him a laugh rang out. Dom felt his heart lurch at the sound low and throaty, full of delight and humour with just a hint of wickedness. It spoke to him of snatched moments in public places, lazy afternoons of doing nothing, long nights of endless loving that always seemed to be over too soon and an epic romance that could last forever if only he'd fight for it.

He looked up and meet Anna's bright green eyes, Dom saw her face contort, as she suddenly understood from his expression that something had changed. The understanding that, somehow, in the space of a few heartbeats they were over. He saw her jaw tighten as she started towards him and he knew that she would not except his decision quietly.

But Dom simply didn't care and as he turned away, his eyes searching for her, he realised that he never really had cared. Not truly cared, in a way that made his heart skip and his breath catch. There was only one person who had ever really made him feel that way, feel the bone deep soul connection and he pushed through the crowd until she was just suddenly standing there before him.

The dark haired girl with a laugh that made him understand what love really was. He didn't think and didn't care, didn't even give her the chance to say anything. Dom just reached out, pulled her to him and kissed her like a dying man and for the first time in a long time the world made sense to him again.

* * *

(A/N) I love this song and think it fits Letty really well, but I'm still not sure how I ended up writing this. I'm sorry if Dom seemed OOC, but I've always thought of him as a 'still waters run deep' sort of person, with a lot of thought and feeling going on behind that calm exterior. I had fun describing Letty though.

Lamanth xx

P.S.

Sorry for the long delay but I've was out of commission with a virus for a fortnight and it's taken me a while to get over it.


	11. Angel With A Shotgun

For mac-reye - because you so wanted to see Dom open the door this way.

* * *

'**Angel with a Shotgun' by The Cab**

_Get out your guns, battles begun,_

_Are you a saint, or a sinner?_

_If loves a fight, than I shall die,_

_With my heart on a trigger,_

_They say before you start a war,_

_You better know what you're fighting for,_

_Well baby, you are all that I adore,_

_If love is what you need, a soldier I will be,_

* * *

"You found something back there." It was a statement rather than a question, she had seen how Dom had reacted and known he must have seen something. The silence stretched out between them and for a moment Mia dared to hope that he would say it had been nothing, that there was nothing to go on, that just maybe he would let it go.

"There were burn marks on the ground." Dom said his voice only just audible over the thrum of the engine as he shifted his fingers lightly on the wheel. "The kind that could only be cause by nitro-meth. There's only one guy in all of L.A. that sells that."

"Nothing you can do is going to bring her back Dom." Mia saw the way his jaw clenched at her words, but she couldn't let his anger stop her. "If I were Letty I'd ask you, no I'd beg you. Please, let this go… before it's too late."

"It's already too late." The finality with which he spoke made any response impossible and he was glad that Mia didn't try.

"I love you." She said softly and leaned across to kiss his cheek, then Mia just sighed softly and slipped out of the car.

Dom didn't wait to see that she made it into the house, he had enough to do as it was, besides if the feds were watching Mia and/or the house the last thing she needed was for him to be seen. And as much as he hated to admit it if he stayed there was a chance Mia might just decided to come back and say something else he was really in no mood to hear.

The steady rumbled of the engine was soothing in its familiarity, as was the comfort of the wheel under his hands. Driving always helped him to think. Racing forced him to focus to live only in the moment, but ordinary driving was all left up to his subconscious. His body went through the motions while his mind was free to rove and think.

Unfortunately all he could think of was Letty, and not what he was going to do or how he should proceed. He wasn't even really sure if it was justice or revenge he was after, all he knew what that he had to do something. The most important thing in his life hand been cruelly taken from him, just snatch away with no warning. And Mia just wanted him to let it go.

That fact made him burn, because if anyone should have understood how he was feeling it was his sister. That Mia could sit there, so calm and contained in her grief, and ask him to do nothing made his insides twist and knot making it feel as if he'd just swallowed a snake. How could she ask him to do something like that?

If she were Letty, Mia had said but she wasn't. They might have grown up together, been best friends, hell the two of them had been closer than any blood sisters could have been. But sometimes it seemed as if, in spite of all that, Mia had never really known Letty at all.

His sister was sweet and loving and despite all that she had seen and lived through still held an air of innocence. She was sensible and grounded, she was a fighter but she knew when the time came to all it quits. When to admit defeat and move on. Letty had never been like that, there was no fight she would back down from or challenge she would refuse. If something or someone got in her way, if she couldn't go round them she'd just blast her way through them.

Maybe he shouldn't have left her, risk of capture or not, if they had been together he would have been able to safe. Safe, alive and his. If he'd just been with Letty it would have been fine because he would have done anything to protect her. He'd have happily taken on both heaven and hell for her because he, who hadn't entered a church with religion aforethought since his father had died, had worshiped Leticia Ortiz.

The lights of the city flashed by as the Chevrolet Camaro speed along the mostly empty streets; there was always some traffic in the city of Lost Angels no matter what the time. Mia said if she were Letty she'd have asked him to let it go, but if she were really Letty such a request would never have entered her head, never mind slipped past her lips.

Letty had been his wild warrior woman. She wouldn't have asked him to just turn his back and walk away, to just give up and let it all go. On the contrary, she would have ridden to war at his side, guns blazing and the light of battle in her eyes.

He could still remember one time when he had got into with Tran, a serious show down, so bad that he had ordered everyone else to head home and leave him to deal with Tran alone. They hadn't been happy about it, Vince had been growling under his breath and Letty had sworn a blue streak but they had gone because he had asked them too. Turned out that was just what Tran had been planing on, and had been only to happy to inform Dom that Lance and a few other members of Johnny's little gang where also heading for the fort.

Dom could remember the fear that had gripped as he fanatically climbed behind the wheel of his car and headed for home and the trap he had sent his family into. The Mazda had seemed to crawl along the roads, and it had felt like forever before the house came into view, though in reality it had only been ten minuets. The house had seemed far too quiet as he left the car abandoned on the sidewalk and literally ran to the house. He had yanked the front door open and skidded to a halt as he came face to face with the business end of a shotgun.

Later he found out that Letty had given Lance the same warm welcome and that the gangster wanna be had taken one look at Letty, unblinking and smiling like a shark, and run for the hills. The rest of Tran's crew hot on his heels. They had practically fallen over each other to get away from her.

And Mia said that if she were Letty she'd ask him to walk away. No, he would find out who was responsible for taking the life of the most amazing woman he had ever known. He would find the ones to blame and then he would rain fire and brimstone down upon them. Hell, Dom could admit the truth even if he could never confess it to another living soul, he wouldn't just fight for Letty for her would start an all out war.

She had survived him leaving her, had come back to L.A picked up the pieces of her life and made something of it. But he didn't how to survive loosing her, wasn't even sure if he could. Mia wanted him to let go, to leave it be and move on, but he couldn't. Letty had made him the best that he could be, all that he could be and he simply wasn't capable of letting go.

Their relationship had been crazy and wild, and far too intense to be healthy for either one of them. She had loved him with everything she had, heart, body and soul and in return he had made her his whole world. An object of passion and dependents that, perhaps he should have known, could only result in abject destruction. But ass long as he had her he had everything he needed. Then someone had taken her from him, and not even for the sake of his sister could he turn his back and walk away.

He would start a war if that was what it would take to bring the bastards down. He'd start a war and he'd see it through to the bitter end. He'd do it for her. For Leticia Ortiz, his angel with a shotgun.

* * *

(A/N) I'm sorry but I just love to write angst and the moment I heard this song… I could just see Dom, holding the gun ready to take on the whole world for his woman. Course then Letty popped into my head grousing that she wanted a gun too, so I just had to let her have one. You guys are just the best.

Lamanth xx


	12. Dirty Little Secret

For Princess of Darkness17

* * *

'**Dirty Little Secret' by The All-American Rejects**

_Who has to know?_

_When we live such fragile lives,_

_It's the best way we survive,_

_I go around a time or two,_

_Just to waste my time with you,_

_Tell me all that you've thrown away,_

_Find out games you don't wanna play,_

_You are the only one that needs to know,_

_I'll keep you my dirty little secret,_

* * *

This was crazy, Dom thought silently as he strolled ever so casually down the street. Not even crazy, it was completely insane and when it blew up in his face, which he was sure it would a lot of people were going to end up seriously hurt. In fact people would probably end up more than hurt, they'd also be angry and confused and his whole life would most likely turn into something resembling a war zone.

So he had to stop. He had to stop it now, tonight in fact, because if he didn't might well end up with his ass behind bars. That was of course providing his dad or Letty's dad, or most likely both of them didn't just straight out kill him. Which either one might very well do. And, as a marine, Letty's farther would probably know how to dispose of his corpse so no trace of him was ever found.

And wouldn't that just serve him right? For here he was sneaking, without looking like he was sneaking, out to see a girl. Not that anyone would have objected if he'd been going on a date with half the cheerleading squad, though Mia would probably have made snaky comments. The problem was that the girl he was furtively slipping of to see was just that, a girl.

Letty Ortiz, she was beautiful and brilliant and the most amazingly down to earth person he had every met. She was loyal and independent, she knew him and understood him, she saw all his faults and loved him in spite of them, or maybe even because of them. She was perfect, she was also, unfortunately, technically what was known as fourteen.

Mentally he knew she was just a kid, hell she wasn't even old enough to qualify for the title of jailbait. And what they, he, were up to was wrong on so many levels. But she was Letty and for some reason he couldn't explain that changed everything. It meant he was willing to risk everything, the wrath of his father and hers, his freedom, even the disappointment of his little sister just to spend time with her. But it didn't change the fact that…

"This is crazy!" Her voice hissed out of the darkness, her tone made it clear she was both stressed and irritated, but it didn't stop his heart from skipping at the sound. "We shouldn't be doing this."

"I know." He said as slipped up beside her, his hand finding hers in the safety darkness offered them, twining their fingers together. "Believe me, I know."

"We need to stop." Her words didn't scare him, because he could hear in her tone that stopping was the last thing she wanted to do. It was the last thing he wanted to do now that he was with her, even though only moments before he had intended to end the whole thing.

"I know." And he did he really did. He knew that what they were doing would be seen as wrong by just about everyone and that there was the potential for a lot of people to end up hurt. Not just himself and Letty, but also their families, her parents and his father and Mia.

"I mean it. this has to be over." She whispered and he knew that she was scared that if things did go wrong Mia would end up in so much pain. Perhaps even forced to chose between her best friend and her brother. It worried him too, and yet when he stood there with her in his arms he couldn't bring himself to care about anything else.

"Yeah." His voice said but everything else about him said no. His tone, his body, his hands and face, the way he bent his head to catch her mouth with his.

A soft and gentle touch, but her mouth was liquid fire and sent and electric current buzzing through his lips. She nipped at his bottom lip, teasingly offering him her mouth only to refuse him access. Her hands ghosted lightly over his hard torso, feeling the taut muscle under skin before her palms came to rest on his broad shoulders. Her mouth opened then and freely his tongue explored, relishing the sweet taste of her. Slow and sensual, she seemed to melt into him; it was all so easy, so un-rushed. The world somehow seemed to make sense when she kissed him.

* * *

(A/N) This came from the whole 'then she turned sixteen and had Dom's attention' because no one falls in love over night, and then I thought maybe it just looked like it happened that fast. Enjoy.

Lamanth xx


	13. This Christmas

For all the Dotty fans out there, Merry Christmas!

* * *

'**This Christmas' by Sweetbox**

_And this year I promise to,_

_Finally get over you,_

_This Christmas I'll try to be good,_

_No New Year's champagne headaches,_

_No resolutions,_

_This Christmas I'll try to be good,_

_No mistletoe make-outs,_

_This time I promise..._

_This year, this year,_

_I'll be the good one, I'm gonna be a saint,_

* * *

It was meant to be a party, one celebrating Letty's favourite holiday of the whole year. But rather than enjoying it she had spent the majority of her time playing an elaborate game of hide and seek with Dominic bloody Toretto. She wasn't helped by the fact that it was his house and that also Mia had abandoned her in favour of flirting with a trio of guys from school. Some damn loyalty. The whole holiday, and this party in particular, was turning into a nightmare.

Everyone had always known that she had a crush on Dom and she'd been quite happy that he was content to ignore it. In truth Letty had sometimes wondered why she was so Ok with the situation, she wondered if it was because she was just a ducks in a row sort of person, she just liked to have everything all worked out.

Mad hobby? Cars, check.

Best friend? Mia, check.

Not so secret crush? Dom, check.

Once or twice lately Letty had even found herself wondered if the only reason she liked Dom was because it was easy, convenient. For all that she was a wild child she liked to have her life organised, all of it neatly tucked away in little boxes. And he was just another little box.

Then three nights ago the two of them had been left to lock up the Dodge Charger for the night and Dom had reached for something just as she had done the same. Their fingers had brushed and there were all the butterflies and fireworks she been so happily living her life without. Turned out she really did like Dom after all and suddenly he was done ignoring her.

In fact he was so done ignoring her that his fingers had closed gently around her wrist and he'd pulled her towards him. He was going to kiss her, she could see in intention in his face, the intensity in his eyes. Dom was going to kiss her, so Letty had done what any sensible person would have.

She had wrenched her hand and from his grip, run for home and done her best to ignore him from that moment on. Something, she mused as she ducked out of the Toretto living room, that would have been a lot easier if he hadn't insisted on stalking her for the best part of the evening.

The kitchen was empty apart from two middle-aged women who were piling paper plates high with the finger food on offer. The pair stopped their gossiping long enough to give Letty a disapproving look as she pulled a corona out of the fridge. Popping the top from the bottle, she took a long swig, flashed the glaring duo a smug smile and sauntered out of the kitchen. And smack bang into Dom.

"Letty." Dom called out and managed to catch hold of her arm before she could slip past him and vanish amongst the other guests as she'd been doing all evening.

"What?" She snapped, reluctantly turning to face him. Why did he have to corner her like that, what could he possibly have to say that was so important that it couldn't be left until his house wasn't full of half the neighbourhood? Speaking of which shouldn't he be off with Vince chasing after girls willing to give it up under the mistletoe?

"Not even going to wish me a merry Christmas?" Dom said sounding hurt and looking at her with soulful dark eyes, knowing full well that she wouldn't buy his wounded heart act for a single moment.

"What do you want Dom?" Letty just demanded for a second time, and wished he wouldn't smile at her like that, it always made her traitorous heart skip a beat or two.

He didn't answer, instead he just pushed a stray strand of hair out her face with one hand, the other he kept securely wrapped around her wrist, not trusting Letty not to bolt at the first given opportunity. Dom trailed his finger across her cheek and along the line of her jaw, smiling when she shivered slightly at the caress. When he reached her chin he gently tilted her head back so she could look up and see what was hanging directly over them.

The dark green leaves and milky white berries almost seemed to be looking mockingly back down at her and Letty's first thought was that when this was all over she was going have to find Mia and kill her. Slowly. Over a period of several days in fact.

"Mistletoe!?" Letty squawked in shock her eyes bugging out and giving her the look of a startled goldfish. "Are you out your damn mind!?"

"Probably, because I want to kiss you." Dom smiled as he saw her falter at the deceleration. Who could have guessed that blunt honesty would have worked where all the subtle, and not so subtle, flirting had failed? "And this was the only way I could think of to get you to let me."

Letty set her half-empty bottle aside, took a deep breath and opened her mouth to yell then paused as what he had said fully registered. That he wanted to kiss her had been kind of obvious, that was after all why she had been avoiding him, but he had never just come out and said it like that. As far as she knew Dom had never said anything like that to anyone. He didn't ask for what, in due time, he could probably just take.

"And what, exactly, makes you think I'll let you kiss me?" She asked trying to regain a handle on her wildly flying thoughts, the fact that Dom was rubbing slow circles on the inside of her writ wrist with his finger tips wasn't helping.

"Well you haven't tried to hit me yet and that gives me… hope." And it did, not only hope that she would let him kiss her but that she would kiss him back.

Letty wanted to tell him that hope was a stupid thing to pin any desire on, but she wasn't sure she could attribute the warmth that was slowly spreading through her completely to the three Corona she had drunk. Some of it might have been caused by the way that his dark, dark eyes were fixed on her. His eyes, as he slowly leaned closer to her Letty wondered if she had ever seen anything quite as beautiful before.

The soft brush of his lips against hers caused her breath to tremble and catch. He knew her well, Letty realised, unsure of him as she was. Knew she would have resisted force, but would find the tender touch hard to resist. So without conscious through Letty found herself leaning into him because the kiss was a questing touch of his lips that begged her to follow where he led.

And so she did, then without her even realising Dom had taken possession of her lips and slipped past her defences even before she knew she needed defending. He'd pulled her in tight to his body and wrapped her in a sea of heat and dizzy need. The strength of his body was solid comfort and called to her even as she leaned closer to him, as did the hard planes of muscle that twitched and jumped under her questing hands.

Dom pulled away far too soon for Letty's liking, not that she would ever admit. Her lips were buzzing and she could feel her heart fluttering in her breast like the wings of a frantic wild bird. She'd expected Dom to know how to kiss, he'd sure got enough practice, but she hadn't thought that he would be quite that good. Knee weakening, pulse racing, dear god sex in my mouth, good. When he took a step back she actually swayed slightly, damn it, she was not going to live this down any time soon.

"Merry Christmas, Letty." Dom breathed leaning in just enough to brush his lips over hers in a fleeting touch and then he was gone.

Right, Letty thought to herself as she watched him disappear through the crowd, the first thing she needed to do was get herself a drink. A very big drink, than she needed to find Mia and ball her out for abandoning her and for filling the house full of mistletoe. But before all that she needed to find a way of standing up that didn't involve propping herself against a wall.

When this was all over she'd track down Dominic bloody Toretto and show him a _Merry Christmas_, just she if she didn't.

* * *

(A/N) Well there you have it, my seasonal gift to you all, just a bit of pointless (and plotless) fluff. I hope you all have a wonderful day however and with whoever you spend it. And remember all of you, Dotty is for life not just for Christmas.

Lamanth xx


	14. Party for Two

For mac-reye – because you asked.

* * *

'**Party for Two' by Shania Twain**

_I'll tell you that it…_

_It doesn't matter what you wear,_

_'Cause it's only gonna be,_

_You and me there (Whoa!)_

_I'm having a party,_

_A party for two,_

_Invitin' nobody,_

_Nobody but you,_

* * *

"It's New Year's Eve!" Mia was shouting, all but dancing with rage. "We're hosting the biggest party in the area, it's fifteen minuets to midnight and they're not here!"

The 'they' in question were her soon to be ex best friend and her soon to be ex older brother, though she wasn't quite sure how to go about making the second one come about. Or at least doing it in a way that didn't end with her behind bars. But first she'd have to find out where the two miscreants had secreted themselves.

Vince and Leon eyed Mia the way drowning men would watch the grey triangular fin slicing through the water. Everyone already knew what the outcome was going to be it was just a question of how much blood would be spilled before it was all said and done. It wasn't surprising that Jesse had vanished the moment hurricane Mia had blown into the room, eyes ablaze, hair flying and looking ready to spit acid.

"I know you both know where they are," She snarled, hands on hips all but vibrating with indignation. "So tell me!"

"Mia, just leave it." Leon's tone was pleading, more than anything he just wanted to be somewhere else, anywhere else. He wasn't proud like Vince and he didn't have an ego like Dom, but even he didn't want to be seen being menaced by a five foot five irate Italian firecracker.

"No Leon," The scorn Mia was able to put into his name had to be heard to be believed. "I will not just leave it! This is their party, they should be here!"

Leon opened his mouth, thought better of it and shut it again. While Vince tired to talk Mia down, he had more chance of persuading rocks to fly, he reflected how unreasonable woman and Mia Athena Toretto in particular could be. Here she was ranting and raving about the absence of Dom and Letty, not like they didn't vanish during every party they had, when the New Years celebration had been her idea in the first place.

Mia glared at Leon who was looking anywhere but at her and was doing a damn fine impression of a clam with lockjaw. Vince was still talking, though not actually saying anything. At least anything worth listening to, such as where her bloody brother and his equally damnable girlfriend had slopped off to.

She had looked everywhere, searching the crowd that filled the house as well as the overflow that had spilled into the garden, but she had found neither hide nor hair of them. Not in the group taking part in the drinking contest in the kitchen, not standing round the bonfire out back or playing video games in the front room. She had even checked the garage, Letty having once informed Mia that the Dodge Charger was one of her and Dom's favourite places to… be… alone…?

Vince started forward in panic and Mia's eyes rolled upwards. His hand was on her arm when he realised that her eyes hadn't turned up as if she were going to pass out but so she could look up at the ceiling. He'd read about people's nostrils flaring in outrage but he'd never actual seen it up until then.

Mia sucked in a deep breath looking, like a dragon about to flame a hated enemy, her eyes looking more than a little crazy as she literally shoved Vince out of her way. "I should have known!" For such a little thing she was remarkably strong.

"Mia, wait!" Vince called bounding after her and almost falling over several empty bottles as he did so. "You don't want to do that!"

Leon took the opportunity to vanish before Vince could think to drag him along to act as back up, he at least didn't want to see what happened when Mia made caught up with Dom and Letty. Though he was pretty sure that it didn't matter where he was he'd be able to hear the young Italian girl just fine

Mia could here Vince calling out but wasn't in any mood to listening. She was running on pure fury and was already halfway up the stairs before he had his foot on the bottom step. With the space that already separated them he had no hope in hell of catching her and she was still excoriating. Vince sprinted up the stairs, ignoring the protests from his knees, and made it to the top just as Mia reached Dom's bedroom door.

Sure there were meant to be fireworks on New Years Eve, but Vince was sure the explosion that was about to follow was not what was expected.

"I should have known!" Mia yelled as she shoved the door open and stormed into the room. "We have a house full of people and you two are – AGH!"

Dom didn't even bother to look round at his sister, preferring to keep all of his focus on Letty, while the dark haired young woman just grinned from her spot on the bed, and under Dom, at her friend's ear splitting scream. True the pair of them were covered from the waist down, but it was pretty obvious the sheet was all that they were wearing, and Mia would have had to have been an astonishingly naïve person not to realise just what the two of them were doing.

"Oh that's disgusting!" If her first cry had been loud the second one was flirting dangerously with the pain threshold.

Mia wasn't a prude or anything of the kind and had no problem with sex. In fact she enjoyed it a lot, not that she would ever allow Dom to know that. She was sure her brother would go to his gave convince his little sister was still a virgin despite providing him with an army of nieces and nephews. But there were limits to what ever the most understanding sibling could put up with.

It was one thing to know that her brother was doing the nasty with her best friend at every given opportunity, but was quite another to see it in the flesh, as it were. The idea of them as a couple one was an abstract concept that she didn't have to deal with on a day to day basis. The reality of the two if them all hot and sweaty and tangled up in the bed sheets was something it was impossible to over look. Especially when it was staring her in the face.

"The door was closed." Dom said mildly, his voice muffled due to the fact he had his face pressed against Letty's neck. "And you didn't knock."

"He's right you know, ever hear of a little think called privacy Mia?" Letty's tone was liquid silk and Mia really didn't want to know what her brother had done to smooth her friend's normally sharp tongue.

She opened her mouth, prepared to snap at the pair for abandoning her with a house full of guests, moreover deserting her just so they could get their freak on. Mia was getting ready to launch into a full-blown rant, but before she could get the first world she was cut off by Letty who admitted a sound somewhere between a giggle and a high pitched squeal.

The youngest Toretto's face momentarily going blank, before contorting into a mask of disgust as she realised what was going on. Oh that was horrific! It was bad enough they had slipped away from everyone so that rather than kissing they could be coming at midnight, but that fact that her brother was still doing things to make Letty produce sounds like that with her standing in the doorway…

Snorting in disgust, Mai turned on her heel and stalked back out of her brother's bedroom. Slamming the door wasn't necessary, and wouldn't distract either member of the sex obsessed pair, but the loud crash it made was satisfying. Though it did little to relieve her foul mood, she was going to be in therapy for years. The sound of Dom's throaty chuckle and Letty's soft laughter followed her out if the room.

"I tried to warn you." Vince said voice barely able to be heard over the sound of Mia stamping across the landing as she made for the stairs. He just rolled his eyes as he followed after her, taking care to avoid the elbow she tired to jab into his ribs. It wasn't as if any of this had been his fault.

"Most people," And she stressed the words to indicate just how abnormal she felt both Dom and Letty were. "Are content to be kissing at midnight, but not those two. Oh no. I'm going to be scarred for life."

* * *

(A/N) Ok so this one is more Mia than Dom and Letty, but can any of you really see that pair settling for kissing in the New Year? This just seemed so much more them. See you in 2013 Dotty fans.

Lamanth xx


	15. Ego

For duchessduchie – because you asked.

* * *

'**Ego' by Beyoncé**

_Usually I'm humble, right now I don't choose,_

_You can leave with me or you could have the blues,_

_Some call it arrogant, I call it confident,_

_You decide when you find on what I'm working with,_

_Damn I know I'm killing you with them legs,_

_Better yet them thighs,_

_Matter a fact it's my smile or maybe my eyes,_

_Boy you a site to see, kind of something like me,_

* * *

Like a tidal wave the rush of power and triumph flooded through him, filling him with the warm golden glow that success always brought him. Adrenaline still singing in his veins Dom eased the Mazda to a smooth stop, as people pushed and shoved to get close. The engine of the orange car throbbed, sounding like the purr of a contented big cat, before he switched off the ignition. For a moment he stayed behind the wheel savouring the moment, not that there had been any doubt he would win, he was Dominic Toretto after all.

The roar from the crowed was an almost physical force as they screamed and yelled their delight, celebrating that their king still ruled the streets undefeated. People yelled congratulations while others reached out trying to touch, to connect for a moment with his greatness. Hands slapped his back and girls tried to get hands in other places too.

Hector raised a hand, indicating the money that he held, then made a show of handing it to Mia who was standing next to him. A smile crossed Dom's face, it was good that they knew how he liked things done, and not just his team, others were learning too. And if the guys were chasing tail and Mia was with Hector that had to mean…

He spotted Letty standing slightly to one side, out of the main crush of humanity, watching him with a knowing look and a half smile. An expression that said she didn't have to do anything, she knew he'd come to her. Her leather pants fit her like a second skin and he already knew, from what he had seen before they left the house, that while her black top was not low cut it left her back completely bare.

Letty shifted her weight slightly from foot to foot as she watched Dom's slow approach and knew it was because he was taking the time to let his eyes run all over her. His slow swagger made her want to smile, it was good to be king and Dom did love the power and attention that being the best brought him. And she loved that he loved it, being humble was not her style and it suited Dom about as well. Being the best was something to be proud of, something to revile in. Besides while being king might be good, being queen was even better.

"My trophy." Dom murmured as he came to a stop in front of her, and well aware that all eyes were on them, bent slightly and scooped Letty off of her feet. He swung her round once in a lazy circle as she settled comfortably against him.

"Hmm," Letty agreed as she locked her legs around his waist, her ankles crossed in the small of his back. She ran her hands lovingly over his head and down his cheeks, raising his head so that he had to look up at her. "But what about when I win my prize?"

"You're so sure you'll win?" He mocked while hand went to caress the firm curve of her backside while the other caressed the bare skin of her lower back.

"Of course." A slow sensual smile pulled at her lips, she was easily within kissing distance but the angle was all wrong and Dom knew Letty would never change anything to make it easy for him. She liked to make him work for her attentions.

"So confident…" He breathed as she tilted her head so that her hair slipped over her shoulder and the ebony strands tickled the side of his face in a silk soft caress. "Or should that be arrogant."

"Not if you can back it up." The words came out in an almost sing-song fashion, she was almost high on the sense of her own self worth. She really believed that no one could touch her, except him of course, he could touch her all night long.

"Which you can?" Dom asked using the arm he had around her back to pull Letty even closer to him. The heat that grew between their bodies was a delicious friction that held the promised of more to come.

"I always do," Letty quipped back, shifting her hips in a way she knew drove her man wild. So what if they were in full view for all to see, neither of them cared what other people thought. "You see while every mother on this earth gave birth to a child my Mama had something else."

"Oh yeah?" Dom mocked, as he reluctantly released his hold. If they drew their game out much longer Letty would be too late to race, an occurrence she would no doubt try and make him pay for. "So what did your Mama have?"

"My Mama," The Latina said with a smirk as she slithered down the length of his body, determined to gain maximum enjoyment from every second of contact. "Gave birth to a legend."

And with those as her parting words Dom watched her saunter up to the start line where Jesse already had her car waiting. He watch the rhythmic swing of her hips, the confident way she held herself as she nodded briefly at those she knew and sneered at the chasers she despised. She moved through the crowed with a confidence born from the knowledge that people would move out of her way. A true queen raining over her kingdom.

Letty looked back over her shoulder as she reached her Nissan 240SX, flashed Dom a smug smile and then slid gracefully behind the wheel. A moment later Rob Zombie blasted from the magenta car's sound system as the powerful engine roared to life. The music was loud enough to cause those standing closest to jump back, startled at the sudden blast of industrial metal. His girl really did know how to put on a show.

XXXXXXXXXX

He didn't watch the race, he had no need to the result was already a forgone conclusion. And just as he knew she would Letty breezed past the line first leaving her so call competition to limp home in her wake while eating her dust. When she climbed out of the Nissan her expression could only be described as smug, and as she bumped the door shut with her hip Dom reflected she really was a very bad winner. She sauntered through the crowd, hips swinging, and threw a grin in Hector's direction as he handed the money she had won to Mia.

As Letty closed the distance between them, Dom watched a smirk forming on his lips as her expression morphed into something that could only be called predatory. She was looking at him the same way a cat might look at a plump mouse, like she was ready to swallow him whole. He could hardly wait.

"You won." Dom said as soon as she was within hearing range, and then slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him. She came willingly, twined one of her legs around his and pressed her body close to his.

"You surprised?" Letty's expression was one of mock outrage, she knew full well that he hadn't doubted her for a moment. There was no one here who had even the slightest hope of out racing her, expect him, and even then only maybe.

"Not even close." The leather of her pants was buttery soft under his hands as he caressed the oh so pleasing curve of her backside.

"So Dom," She breathed his name into his ear and couldn't help but smirk at the way it caused his pulse to jump in the base of his throat. "What about my prize?"

"What do you want?" He asked pressing Letty so tightly against him she couldn't fail to notice the reaction he was having to her. She tilted her head slightly to one side, as if she was seriously contemplating what form she wanted her prise to take.

"Take me home." Letty raised a hand and danced her fingers across the line of his jaw, making sure his full attention was fixed upon her. "Take me home and take me to bed."

* * *

(A/N) Yeah just a bit of pointless fluff, but it was fun to do. We all know Dom was king of the streets, but Letty must have been pretty sure of herself too, to be his woman she would have to be. And I like the idea of them both being big headed and a bit arrogant, they work best as equals.

Lamanth xx


	16. Always On Time

For Shawnied777 - just becuase.

* * *

'**Always On Time' by Ja Rule Feat. Ashanti**

_But we share somethin so rare, but who cares, you care,_

_Baby, I'm not always there when you call, but I'm always on time,_

_And I gave you my all, now baby be mine,_

_I'm not always there when you call, but I'm always on time,_

_And I gave you my all, now baby be mine,_

_Oh I'm, feelin like ya livin a, double life,_

_'Cause you don't be comin home, sometimes,_

_Baby, but you're always, on time, checkin for one time,_

_You and I, got a special bond together,_

* * *

He was having doubts and he knew he shouldn't be. Anna Cavanaugh was amazing. She was perfect and she loved him and he loved her and they were going to get married. It was right and proper and everything he wanted. A life and love where he could settle down and just be himself. He wanted to spend the rest of his life with her, showing her just how much he loved her and how grateful he was that she had come into his life.

Anna with her laughing green eyes, inappropriate sense of humour and a smattering of freckles across her nose was all that he needed. All that he wanted. And yet he was having doubts.

He had no idea why because everything was perfect. Mia had a theory and had subjected him to it on numerous occasions, but his sister was a fantasist and refused to see that he and Letty were never going to be. They'd drifted apart after Jesse's death five years ago, and he hadn't spoken to her, never mind seen her, in the past three years since she moved out of state. Mia though just kept on, like a dog with a damn bone, in her opinion he would never be happy with anyone else as long as Letty walked the earth.

She'd even put it like that, proving what a dreamer she really was. So what if she and O'Conner had worked everything out and were planning their first baby, most of the time in the real world you didn't get fairytale endings. Sure every once in a while someone got their happily ever after, but in their family it was Mia not him. Yet she refused to let the whole Letty subject drop.

Dom was so lost in thoughts of Anna, and ways to permanently shut up his sister which her ex-cop husband wouldn't find out about, that he failed to see the girl until he actually walked directly into the back of her. A full on smack bang, knock you flat on your ass, collision.

The paper cup she had been holding fell to the ground spilling chocolate scented liquid in all directions as she squawked and staggered wildly her balance completely thrown off by the impact of his weight. Quick reflexes where the only thing that saved her as she just managed to catch herself on the Plymouth Road Runner she'd been unlocking one handed. He didn't actually send her headfirst to the sidewalk, Dom thought with relief, but it was a pretty close run thing. He was already opening his mouth to apologies, one hand reaching out to steady her, when she turned to face her would be attacker. His dark eyes widened in shock and the apologia and offer to replace her drink died on his lips.

"Letty!?" It was her, there could be no doubt, and three years of total separation had hardly changed her. The black hair was perhaps a little longer and the figure a touch fuller, but apart from that nothing had changed.

He knew that if Mia had been there she'd have been yelling and dancing and saying it was a sign because hadn't Letty always shown up just in time for something. Here he was having doubts about his oh so perfect Anna and the best thing that ever happened to him just happens to wonder back into his life.

"Ya know, if you didn't want me around you could have just taken out a restraining order," She said smiling wryly as she pushed sunglasses onto the top of her head. "You didn't have to beat me up."

"Please, like you've even been in a fight you couldn't handle." Dom responded a smile pulling at his own mouth, and it was as if the last five years hadn't happened. "You look good girl."

"New York agreed with me, who would have thought." Even as she said it she was looking around her, not caring that the sun was making her squint. "But there's nowhere quite like L.A. it's home."

"Yeah. Yours?" He asked, and indicated the 70 Plymouth with a tilt of his head and laughed when she nodded, but he didn't miss the way she referred to New York in the past tense. "Always said you'd have one, didn't you."

"Little girls and muscle cars, ain't that what you used to say." Letty kept her tone light but her smile became brittle and fixed.

Before the words were out of her mouth she'd known it was a stupid thing to say. Yes, it was a joke they had shared for years and Dom had made the comment many times during the course of their relationship. But the first time he'd said it was just after he'd taken her virginity in the back of his dad's Charger. And the look on his face said that, just like her, he was back in that car as if it had only happened the day before

"I remember," His voice dropping half an octave, he really did remember. He remembered the nerves and the excitement and the way she couldn't stop laughing even as she kissed him. But most of all he remembered how it had felt to hold her in his arm and know that she was his. He'd felt as if he never wanted to let her go.

"You going somewhere?" Dom questioned to break the heavy silence that had settled between them, and waved a hand towards the dark green Plymouth they stood beside.

Letty glanced down at the keys in her hands and hesitated. She could lie, say she had an appointment or was meeting someone. She could tell him she had to meet an estate agent and just slip away back into the past where she belonged. It had been five years and too much had changed and a chance meeting on the street was probably all that they could really handle. Not that they had even managed to handle that particularly well.

She was happily single and didn't need any mess or fuss and she knew from Mia that he was engaged and about to settle down with a woman that he said he loved. She could have lied. "Nah, nowhere special. Just… driving."

"Can I come?" He didn't know why he asked, and knew it was a stupid thing to do even as the words tripped off his tongue. He was in love with Anna, right? He had no business getting into a car with an Ex especially not the Ex who was Letty.

"Sure." Letty gave a small shrug, unlocked the car, opened the driver's side door and settled behind the wheel before she had a chance to change her mind and within seconds Dom had joined her. "But you'll let me know when it's time to stop though, right?"

Dom looked at her from the passenger seat, same hair, same eyes and the same mouth that once kissed no one but him. He wondered, if he told her to just keep driving if she would do it, and realised that he was hoping that she would. "Don't worry, I'll let you know."

Letty nodded, pulled her sunglasses back down, turned the key in the ignition and the huge engine rumbled to life. It pounded and throbbed like the purr of a contented big cat. She pulled out into the flow of traffic manoeuvring the big car with the ease of long practice, her fingers light on the wheel and her hand fitting snugly around the gearshift. She'd always known how to drive well and there wasn't even a slight jerk when she stopped at a red light.

"Where d'you want me to take you?" Her voice was soft and yet carried easily over the sound of the Plymouth's engine and the other traffic that was speeding past them.

"Take me away Letty," Dom turned his head to look at her, she'd always been beautiful, but never more so than when behind the wheel. "Just take me away."

* * *

(A/N) Just a few things. One, I love this song and think it fits so well with Dom's line 'You always arrive just in time for something Letty'. Two, Michelle is in the music video for this song, right at the end and she looks so hot. And three, the car Letty was driving when she 'died' was a 70 Plymouth Road Runner the same car Dom was driving in Tokyo Drift.

Lamanth xx


	17. I'd Come For You

For Joani – cus of Letty's tank

* * *

'**I'd Come For You' Nickelback**

_By now you'd know that I'd come for you,_

_No one but you, yes I'd come for you,_

_But only if you told me to,_

_And I'd fight for you,_

_I'd lie, it's true,_

_Give my life for you,_

_You know I'd always come for you,_

_No matter what gets in my way,_

_As long as there's still life in me,_

_No matter what, remember you know I'll always come for you,_

* * *

"You stupid little bitch." The words were accompanied by a hard slap that had white and purple stars exploding behind Letty's eyelids when the impact threw her head back.

She'd heard once that you could do more damage with a well placed slap than several sloppy punches. If you got the angle just right you could knock someone out with the flat of your hand. As she tested the split in her lips, the rich copper taste of blood coating her tongue, she thought it was probably true.

"Toretto's little whore," The voice spat, the derision easy to hear even through the throbbing in her skull. "Just look at you now."

_Yeah, just look at me_, Letty thought bitterly, but outwardly she remained silent and impassive. Out of the frying pan and into the fire. She'd spent most of her life jumping from one lot of trouble to the next. Never happier than when she was hip deep in some sort of mess, Dom had liked to say and her response had generally been to scold him for thinking about her hips.

But this time she was in deep, deep and over her head. And the worse part was that this time she hadn't been courting danger, just the opposite in fact. She'd been keeping a low profile, kept her head down as she made her way through Mexico while recovering from the damage bring driven off the road had done. That was the last time she ran for a drug dealer or tried to play nicey nice with the FBI.

Another slap made her ears ring and Letty had to bit back the growl that crawled up her throat when her teeth bit into her lip. The one thing she could be sure of was that losing her temper was the one thing guaranteed not to help. Of course the problem was nothing was going help. As they yelled more questions, Dom still being the general theme, she probed at her upper left canine and was sure she felt the tooth give slightly.

Why where these people so interested in her… now that was a question? Just what was he to her now. After all he had left her all alone in another damn country. Run off in the middle of a night thank you very much, just like a guy who didn't want to have to face the morning after consequences of a one-night stand. And he'd left a pile of cash on the bedside table to boot. But Letty had to admit she could understand why he had done it, even if she didn't like it, and while he might have left her it hadn't felt as if he was _leaving_ her.

Another slap rattled her teeth, and Letty spat a glob of blood at the feet of her interrogator in response. They could yell questions as much as they liked and it would do no good, but if they carried on like that they'd bust her jaw. Of course that would only go further to ensure they didn't get any answers out of her. Not that she would ever betray Dom anyway.

Dom, the thought of him both warmed and irritated her. Letty supposed that it really didn't matter what he was to her anymore because if he really thought she was dead the point was kind of moot. Then, to him, all she would be was history. Letty pulled herself from the dispiriting thought and instead focused on what was being said to her.

"Fine, be like that. We can wait." The tone for his voice changed, sliding from harsh sharpness into clawing sweetness. "After all it's not as if he's coming for you. He thinks you're dead."

"And you think that will stop him?" Letty said, more because she'd be damned if she'd let that comment go, than because she really thought Dom would come if he believed she were dead. "You really don't know him, do you."

This time it wasn't a slap but a punch, several in fact. The one to her gut forced the air from her lungs while the shot to the side of her head almost knocked her cold. Letty was sure that more damage would have been inflicted, had they not needed her in a fit state to talk. Seemed they weren't prepared to wait long enough for her to recover from a real beating. That was good to know.

XXXXXXXXXX

But wait they did, wait and wait and wait. Always they came at her with the same questions, wanting answer she didn't have and wouldn't have given them even if she had known. The pattern was set, day in day out, the routine was always the same until everything just became one big blur.

It was so hard to keep track of time and Letty could no longer work out how much had really passed and how long she had been held captive. It could have been a few days or a couple of months, there was no definitive of way knowing. In idle moments of speculation Letty would wonder if maybe she had in fact been held captive for years and mealy forgotten. But she dismissed such thoughts as the ridicules notions they were.

Still sitting alone and in silence it was impossible to tell if hours or minuets went by. It wasn't until you were cut off from the outside world that you realised just how much you took it for granted. But it had started to sound as if the outside world had finally had enough and was fighting for recognition, and right out side the room in which she was being held at that. There were muffled yells and angry shouts and there was a loud boom as if someone had been thrown into the door at her back.

Whoever or whatever was out there sounded madder than a cut snake if the muted sounds of combat were any indication. There was another resounding boom as a second body, or possibly the same one a second time, made contact with the cell door. It sounded like a pub late on Saturday night after some had accidentally taken a swig from the wrong glass and started the over due barroom brawl.

Letty twisted on the chair she was secured to, trying in vain to free her hands from the rope that bound them behind her back. Cuffs would have been fine, an adventurous sex life combined with an inability to remember where keys had been put meant she had learned how to free herself for handcuffs early on in her relationship with Dom. But she couldn't even get the knots to loosen. All her efforts were succeeding in doing was ripping the tender skin of her wrists to shreds.

There was a third, much louder crash, from the door which this time had been caused by someone throwing it open with so much force that it rebounded off of the wall. Letty wiped her head for side to side desperate to see what was going on as the sound of fighting rose to a deafening roar. There was a flicker of movement to her right, and she turned her head just in time to receive the full force of the blow in her left eye.

"Bastard!" Letty managed to gasp out the one expletive before she was struck again.

After that every thing just became one big blur of sound and movement and pain. There was so much pain that it became impossible to think. Letty had been in her fair share of fights, and knew how to take a hit as well as give one, but she'd never experienced anything like few minutes after the door flew open. And it was made all the worse because she was bound and helpless and had no way of fighting back.

She was sure she must have pass out for a moment or two because quite abruptly the sounds of fighting stopped. It was as if someone had flipped a switch or paused a film and everything was suddenly still and quite. Letty realised that someone had released her bonds, her ankles were no longer tied to the chair and her hands were throbbing and tingling with the renewed blood flow.

Then, though the red haze that filled her aching throbbing head, she became aware of something else. Someone was saying her name. Over and over. Softly, tenderly repeating her name as if it were a prayer for salvation.

"Letty, Letty." Hands that were rough and callused by a lifetime of hard work gently took her face. The touch of the fingertips on her cheek was as tender as the voice that spoke her name. "Letty please, say something."

"Dom?" Letty question, recognising his voice but not daring to believe it was really him until she forced her swollen eyes open and saw him crouched before her. Her lips were dry and split and they cracked, spilling blood, when she forced a smile. "What took you so damn long?"

* * *

(A/N) I'm not normally a fan of Letty gets captured and then Dom comes to her rescue fics, but I couldn't pass up the chance to write something for this song. And before anyone asks I have no idea who took Letty or what they wanted, they were just a plot device. but if you think you know what they were up to feel free to let me know. Peace out.

Lamanth xx


	18. Bedroom Dancing

For Dotty fans everywhere - spread the love

* * *

'**Bedroom Dancing' by Day One**

_She walked in wearing Stiletto boots,_

_First woman, wedding, then honey moon,_

_This girl that I thought I knew so well,_

Didn't know her until we're hit the hotel and,

_We're on the dance floor by the seashore,_

_She said "these nights we dance together, is what I live for",_

* * *

Valentine's Day had always been a holiday that Dominic Toretto dreaded when he was younger and not just because the candy companies had hijacked it. When he was single it was bearable; he kept his head down and stayed inside as much as was possible. Mia had said that he was unromantic, he claimed he was allergic to giant red hearts staring him in the face everywhere he looked. But as bad as that was it was always worse when the dreaded day rolled around and he wasn't single.

Not that that had happened too often. He'd never really been one for serious relationships in his younger days, and had only had two or three girlfriends that lasted longer than six months. But when the two things, Valentine's Day and girlfriend, had coincided it had always ended with a major headache. No matter what he did it never seemed right, never seemed to make the girl in question happy. Then there had also been the fact that they would send presents and sappy cards to the garage. That had not been something he was comfortable with, it had felt like an invasion of his territory.

And even then the few girls that he had spent February the fourteenth with never seemed to last much past that date. It hadn't been something that had bothered him all that much, after all there were always plenty more girls. All that had changed when the girl in question became Letty Ortiz.

While he still felt that the holiday was too commercial, the idea of spending it with Letty didn't worry him the way it had with the others. Partly because her idea of a perfect date was a gore filled horror film followed by pizza. She made it easy to be romantic. There was also the fact the Letty's idea of a good Valentine's Day present in the work place, tended to involve the two of them and the desk in the back office. Everyone knew it was best to come in late to work on February fourteenth.

Big romantic expressions of love were tossed aside in favour of the two of them hiding themselves away from the rest of the world. She didn't need or want giant teddy bears or sparkling pieces of jewellery, she had told him once; all she needed was him. Course that hadn't meant Letty was adverse to gifts though, no nonsense attitude aside she was still a girl. Though the time he'd brought two piece lingerie set of sapphire blue silk she laughed and told him that as much for his own pleasure as hers. She'd been right.

Then everything had changed, their lives had been turned upside down in a matter of days and everything he had thought firm and stable had been ripped away from him. But Letty remained. Through it all she stood by him and if it were possible he grew to love her even more than he had before.

Their lives turned into one long road trip, never staying in one place longer than six months. Sometimes remaining no more than a single night. Frequently forced to separate, sometimes out of a need to run and cover their tracks, or sometimes just so she could head back to L.A. and find out how Mia was coping. But always, they made the point of being together whenever February the fourteenth rolled around.

Eight years, Dom reflected as he took a sip from the sweating bottle he held in one hand. They had been together for eight years and in all that time they had never spent Valentine's Day apart. Until now.

The clock situated on the wall behind the bar was slowly but steadily slicing the day into its passing seconds and already the hands indicated that it was a quarter after nine. And still there was no sign of Letty, which was why he was sitting in the dingy bar in the back of beyond somewhere in Mexico nursing his third beer of the night.

They'd parted ways two weeks before somewhere in Chile and should have met up three day ago and all the news he had received was that she was all right, just held up but she would be with him soon. When though was soon? That was the question floating around his head as he irritably shooed away the girl that slipped onto the stool next to him and tried to strike up a conversation.

It wasn't that he didn't want company, he was just very specific about whose company he wanted. Dark eyes flicked to the clock again to see that this time it read half past nine. It shouldn't matter really; it was just a stupid date on a calendar, one that didn't even mean anything. It wasn't as if it was a birthday or an anniversary. But it was the fact that no matter what they had always spent it together.

Dom was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't register the presence behind him until she spoke. Her voice like the flutter of warm golden silk whispering against his skin.

"Of all the bars," The voice purred in his ear as he felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around his neck. "In all the towns in all the world…"

"You had to walk into mine." He finished and tuned to Letty, not realising how tense he had been until he relaxed at the sound of her voice.

Her eyes crinkled up at the corners in pleasure when he finished the cheesy line for her, but he could see the tiredness in those same eyes. The dust and dirt of the road clung to her and she was in desperate need of a shower. But it was Valentine's Day and she was with him, and under those circumstances Dom thought he'd probably forgive her just about anything.

"Com on," He said, tossing a few crumpled bills onto the bar with one hand while taking one of hers with the other. "Let me take you to bed."

Her smile, half shy and half secretive, was the only answer he needed.

XXXXXXXXXX

"I wasn't sure you'd make it." Dom said some time later as he lay in the dark. Tired and spent from loving her while Letty lay sprawled over him, her body a warm and reassuring weight.

It wasn't until he had got her alone in the privacy of the rooms he had arranged for that he realised just how much the thought of not being able to spend at least some part of this day with her had effected him. Even having her out of sight long enough to shower had been torture.

"I almost didn't." She admitted, one hand tracing lazy nonsensical patterns over his shoulder and bicep, delighting in the feel of hard muscle under the smooth warmth of his skin.

"You shouldn't have to live like this." It was a close as he could come to expressing how sorry his was that she had been forced to spend the best part of the past five years living out of a suitcase. But he knew that if he ever came out and openly admitted how guilty he felt, Letty would curse him for being a fool and probably threaten to rip his tongue out if he ever said anything like it again.

"I'm here, you're here." Letty said, shifting slightly so that she could raise her head and meet his dark eyes with her own inky orbs. "That's all I need."

"Hmm," It was a sound in the back of his throat as his gently pushed a strand of dark hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. "But what about tomorrow, Letty? What about tomorrow?"

"But what about tonight?" She countered the inattention behind her words obvious and suddenly Dom decided that he wasn't as tired as he had previously thought he was. It was a long time before either of them spoke again.

"Trust me Dom," When Letty's voice broke the heavy silence, her voice was thick and slightly slurred as she hovered just on the edge of sleep. "We'll be all right. We're gonna be all right."

* * *

(A/N) I didn't want to do mushy for Valentine's Day. A) cus I don't do mushy well, and B) cus I don't do Valentine's Day that well either. Still I hope you all like this and have a great day whoever you may spend it with. Now, I hear a mug of tea calling my name. Later all.

Lamanth xx


	19. Boys With Girlfriends

For my girls on the Dotty forum – you rock

* * *

'**Boys with Girlfriends' by Meiko**

_But I knew,_

_She was jealous from the start,_

_Yeah, I knew,_

_She was jealous from the start,_

_'Cause I know better not to be friends,_

_With boys with girlfriends,_

_Oh, I know better than that,_

_I know better,_

_You play the victim and I'll be the bad guy,_

_I know better than that,_

_I know better,_

* * *

There was another fight on the horizon, Letty could feel it in the air building like storm clouds and making her every breath taste of ozone. It didn't help that in part she was responsible for the current tension, though of late she always seemed to be the problem, even if all the blame could not be placed at her feet. She could have said no, or made up something about already having plans, but she was selfish and hadn't wanted to.

And so now Dominic Toretto and his girlfriend Anna Cavanaugh were all set for another blazing row and Letty just knew that no matter what started the fight sooner or later it would end up being about her. It always did. She really should know better than to hang around with guys with girlfriends, especially when the girlfriends were possessive, slightly unhinged redheads called Anna Cavanaugh.

But really how could the girl expect someone like Dom to dance attendance on her 24/7? He just wasn't that type of guy. And if you gave him the choice between spending a Saturday hanging out with his girlfriend or going to a classic car show with friends, cars would win every time. Any girl in a long-term relationship with him needed to be able to understand that all the things he liked best in the world had engines. He might like to say he liked a good body regardless of the make or model, but he always liked it better if it came with an engine the purred like a contented big cat.

Also the fact that the redhead was hissing and spitting because Dom had stood her up to hangout with another girl was not an argument that would get her anywhere. Mostly because as far as Dom was concerned he had done no such thing and she had no right to accuse him of doing so. He'd spent the day with his friends, with Vince and Letty and Leon, the fact that one of them was technically female didn't change anything.

For Anna though the fact that one of those friends was not only female but also Leticia Ortiz made all the difference in the world. No one was quite sure if Dom knew Letty had a crush on him or not. He either hadn't notice or had simply chosen not to mention it. His girlfriend, on the other hand, was very much aware of Letty's feelings and she didn't like it one bit. A fact she made loudly and often. Such as when she come walking unannounced into the Toretto front room and found Dom and Letty lying side by side on the floor. The fact that they weren't snuggling but trying to kill one another on the play station, and Letty was actually yelling _die motherfucker die_ at the top her voice, hadn't stopped her from pitching a damn fit.

The redhead's attitude mostly irritated Letty, because while she might like Dom she wasn't the sort of girl who went around pinching other girl's boyfriends. But she couldn't help being also just a little bit flattered. It was kind of nice that Anna Cavanaugh with her creamy skin, whisky curls and long legs saw her as some sort of threat. Personally Letty couldn't see it, she was all bulk and muscle and oil stained clothes not the sort of girl who could be considered competition. Plus she had known Dom most of her life and spent most of that time getting of his nerves, hardly the stuff great romances were made from.

So really it wasn't as if Anna needed to keep warning Dom away from her, it was doing more harm than good after all. Because of course Dom being Dom the moment someone told him he couldn't do something he'd do it out of pure contrariness. So when his green-eyed, in both senses, girlfriend had asked why Dom had to spend so much time hanging out with Letty when he was already in a relationship, he hadn't taken it well. Letty, he had pointed out, was one of his best friends someone he had known most of his life and far longer than he had known Anna. Why should he stop spending time with his friends just because she didn't like them?

The fight that had followed had not been pretty and Letty could never quite work out if she was pleased or horrified to have witnessed it. Most of the time she was pleased, because it had been nice to hear Dom sticking up for her and defending their friendship, but it had also set a rather unpleasant president. Now when Dom and Anna fought, the really big blow out fights, they always seemed to happen when Letty was there to see it.

Or maybe they just happened because Letty was there to see it. In any case she really should have known she wouldn't be able to simply slip away and let the couple continue with their fight. Somehow they always seemed to notice when their audience left, and while Anna would have been only to happy to see the back of her, she should have known that Dom would quickly come after her.

"Hey Letty," He called when she was only half way down the path, normally she was almost on the sidewalk before he came chasing after her. "You're still coming round tomorrow right?"

Letty turned to face Dom, and could see Anna scowling behind his back, and knew the sensible thing would be to say something had come up and she couldn't make it. Tomorrow was a family BBQ and Dom had promised that afterwards he'd take her out to some quiet place he knew where she'd be able to drive without getting caught. She really did want to go, but after the fight that had just gone down she wasn't sure she wanted to see Dom have another one so soon.

"Uh… well…" Letty stalled as she tried to work out what to say. It wasn't that she cared if Anna got upset, in fact she rather liked it, it was just that the constant fighting was getting Dom down and that she didn't like. But she was a selfish creature and if she wanted to be there and Dom wanted her there why should she stay away just to please a girl she didn't much like?

"Oh come on," Dom wheedled, interrupting her musings, and he even had a gall to put on a wounded expression as if her hesitation where hurting him. The ass. "You did promise me Letty."

"Course I'm gonna be there." She retorted, deciding not to point out that he was the one who had in fact made the promise, Anna's look already looked poisonous enough to kill. But couldn't resist adding, "You know I never go back on my word."

Pausing only long enough to flash Dom a slight smile she quickly walked away. Behind her she could already hear the redhead snapping, asking why Dom had pushed Letty when it was obvious she'd been trying to find a way to say she didn't want to come. If she hadn't of known better sometimes Letty could have sworn that Dom was actually using her to get at his girlfriend, but the idea was ridicules.

End of the day all this trouble was on her, after all she did know better that to be friends with guys who had neurotic girlfriends. They always made life so complicated.

* * *

(A/N) I love the idea of Dom falling for Letty while she's completely oblivious of what's going on. And having a fuming, soon to be ex, girlfriend witnessing it all is just a bonus.

Lamanth xx


	20. Life Is Beautiful

For dandani

* * *

'**Life Is Beautiful' by Sixx: A.M. (Acoustic Version)**

_You can't quit until you try,_

_You can't live until you die,_

_You can't learn to tell the truth,_

_Until you learn to lie,_

_You can't breathe until you choke,_

_You gotta laugh when you're the joke,_

_There's nothing like a funeral to make you feel alive,_

_Just open your eyes,_

* * *

_Move you stupid bitch, move._ Letty's breath was fast and shallow and her body felt like one long list of cuts and bruises. Pain, was the only thing that really registered. Pain and some bone deep need to move. She had to move, keep moving, keep going. No matter what she could not afford to stop. She had come to far to give up.

The haze of pain cleared enough to allow her to remember where she was and what had happened. The last few moments had been an adrenaline-fuelled blur of events that had streamed into one another. Seemingly without beginning or end, until the world had flipped and tumbled around her. Then everything had been stillness, the chirruping to crickets and the air filled with the smell of hot metal.

With a supreme effort Letty clawed at the open door, ignoring the way the muscles in her arms burned as she struggled to pull herself free of the over turned car. _Keep moving_, a gasp almost tore its self free of her lips as fire exploded along the length of her spine. Tears prickled the backs of her eyes as she managed to get her head and shoulders clear, the air was warm on her skin and filled with the fragrances of the desert.

_Just keep going,_ she told her self as she wedged a foot against the dashboard. Hoping to use the leverage to push her torso and waist free of the car, then all she would have to do would be to slither her legs clear. But even as she braced with the foot she heard the sound of footsteps crunching over the uneven ground. _Move! Now!_ If she'd had just a few moments more she could have dragged herself clear and then she could have run or fought or done something.

But it was already too late. Letty could see Fenix emerging out of the darkness, his pace slow and easy as if he had all the time in the world. She had run, yes, lead him one hell of a chase and almost, almost, gotten away. But almost was not good enough and he knew that he had her tapped now. Pinned half in half out of the Plymouth Road Runner, there was nowhere that she could go.

He came to a stop, standing over her and looking down his face blank and eyes empty. _Look at his eyes, dark soulless, like those of a shark_. Letty refused to turn away, meeting his gaze with her own. She was already dead, she knew it. She had tried so hard, tried and failed and now she was going to die. Shot on the side of the road like some stray dog. But she would not look away.

A slight smile pulled at Fenix's mouth as he pulled out a handgun. Stupid bitch, his expression seemed to say, as he carefully took aim and thumbed off the safety. Letty focused her eyes on the barrel of the gun while she fixed her mind on the cool spot between her shoulder blades where her Papa's dog tags had come to rest. Soon she'd be with him again.

The roar of the gun was deafening, shattering the quiet stillness of the night and for a split second Letty could have sworn she actually saw the bullet twisting through the air. Then it stuck her and there was one white-hot instant of blinding, nerve searing pain before the world turned to darkness.

XXXXXXXXXX

Pain. Pain. There was so much pain and that wasn't fair because she was dead and all the hurting should be over. Hadn't she suffered enough already? Did she really have to endure still more torment? Her heart had already been broken, shattered into a hundred thousand pieces, and though she had tired to put it back together it still filled her chest with an ache that defied words. And the blazing fire in her head was match only by the ice that was burring its way up and down the column of her spine.

_Open your eyes._ But she didn't want to, she had tired and failed and lost everything. Even her own worthless life. She just wanted to lie there in limbo until she didn't care anymore, not about how much she had messed up, or about how Dom had left her, or about that pain the pulsed like smouldering colas in her head. _Stupid bitch! Open you eyes!_

Pain in her head, the thought was like a cool stream of water that washed away the hot dust of confusion that filled her mind. If she was dead then there would be no pain; she also probably wouldn't have a head. _Open your eyes!_ With a supreme effort Letty forced her eyes open and saw, not the bright light and pearly gates that years of Sunday school had predicted, but a vast expanse of sky and a billion pinpricks of frozen light.

Starts, Letty thought in mild amusement. _Of course stars_, was the response for the small part of her brain that hadn't succumbed to shock, the same part that had forced her to open her eyes. Because if she was seeing starts she couldn't be dead. It defied all reason because she had seen Fenix standing over her and seen him pull the trigger. She'd felt the explosion of pain as the bullet had impacted the side of her head. At point blank range there was no way he could have missed.

With trembling fingers, and her muscles screaming protest with every excruciating inch, Letty slowly reached up and cautiously felt along the side of her head. Her fingers encounter snarled strands of hair, all tangled and matted together, slick with a liquid that could only be blood. Carefully she probed while the fiery pain built and turned into a blazing inferno when her fingers brushed something cool and smooth.

Letty cried out as a sharp pain shot through her as she jerked her hand away. Bone, that had been bone under her fingers. Her bone. Her skull. Revulsion filled her, but at the same time was being pushed aside by and earth shattering relief. She was alive. Somehow, someway instead of punching through her skull and turning her brain into so much liquid pulp, the bullet had glanced of her skull. Knocking her out cold and leaving one hell of a bloody gash, but also leaving her still breathing.

That Fenix had left her for dead was easily explained. At such close range coupled with seeing the bullet hit home, it had never crossed his mind that she might have survived. Assuming a kill shot had been made he hadn't bothered to check that she had no pulse. And had left her bleeding, but also still breathing, half in and half out of her wrecked 70 Plymouth. A million to one chance.

She had no way of knowing how long she had been unconscious, but judging by the way that her blood had congealed in her hair it had been some length of time. _Is that a good thing or a bad thing?_ Letty had to admit that she didn't know, it was a thing and that was as far as she was able to reason before thinking became too confusing. Small steps, that would be the trick. Take everything slow, don't look too far ahead and take it one small step at a time.

The first thing to do was to get the rest of her body out of the car, not too difficult as her foot was still resting on the dash and after that it was just a case of wiggling free. But even this small thing took the best past of five minuets to complete. Every movement was agony and any incautious move of her head had the pain in her skull blazing like a raging inferno. By the time Letty was able to lie flat out on the dusty road she was shaking and drenched with sweat and the pain in her head was threatening to make her physically sick.

_Now what?_ The voice in the back of her mind asked as she lay there, panting in the dirt and staring up at a sky so full of starts that she wouldn't even know where to start counting them. There were never that many stars in the city. Must be because of all the light pollution, what a pity as they were so pretty. Slowly, her mind wondering wildly, Letty managed to get her breathing back under control ignoring the stabs of pain she drew in deep lungfulls of air.

That seemed to help, or at least allowed her brain to focus long enough to work out that now she was out of the car the next logical step was to get up on her feet. Something that was far easier said than done. But her struggle out of the car had proven one thing at least, while she might be beaten and banged up and had doubtless pulled a good few thing into the bargain, didn't appear to have broken anything significant. Ribs did not count. Miracle number two, even though her left leg was wrenched all to hell and her back was probably a chiropractors wet dream.

The struggle to a vertical base however was too much for her stomach, and Letty clung desperately to one sky pointing wheel as she retch helplessly. Her violent gagging jerking her head horribly and only adding to the feeling of nausea. It was only her death grip on the wheel the kept her up right as blackness gathered at the edges of her vision. But eventually, after long agonising minuets, her stomach settled and she was once again able to settle her breathing.

Again the question seemed to be, now what? With one hand Letty fished in the pocket of her leather pants, wonderful things that were the reason she had survived the crash without needing skin graphs on her legs, and pulled out her phone. The screen was cracked and dark, not that the rest of it was in good shape. She fumbled with it for a moment or two before giving up and tossing it back into the car, thing was probably dead anyhow.

_So, now what?_ The voice that had kept her awake and functioning needled at her. _Now where, can't stand here all night_. And that was true, she couldn't stay here. She had to somehow get back to L.A. get in contact with the FBI and explain everything to Brian O'Conner. She had to tell him what was going on, not just because the FBI were trying to bring Braga and his drug ring down but also because Dom was depending on her –

_To do what, exactly?_ The little voice in the back of her mind mocked, the same questioning voice that had been dogging her ever since the Dominican Republic. _He left you, remember? No warnings, no goodbyes. Just vanished. Leaving you behind… again. Just like he's always done._

"Shut up." Letty muttered, not caring that she was talking aloud to a voice only she could hear. She was in the middle of nowhere, had been shot in the head and was probably suffer from blood loss, she was allowed to act a little crazy.

_Maybe he just got fed up of you always chasing after him, following him like a shadow. Maybe that's why he left you? Or maybe he just didn't care anymore? And now here you are, dying for him. Is it worth it? Is he really worth throwing your life away over? Even after he threw you away?_

"Shut up! Just shut up!" She screamed it at the sky, swaying on her feet as tears that pain and death hadn't been able to pull from her flowed freely as all the doubt she had pushed aside flooded her mind. But the voice, her voice, the one she pushed into the darkest corners of her mind wouldn't quite.

_Why? Why!? WHY!?_ Over and over again the same question, one that Letty didn't have an answer for, had never had an answer for. She'd fought tooth and nail to clear Dom's name, to bring him home, because she hadn't known what else to do. But the truth was that he had left her and she had ended up staring down the barrel of a gun waiting to die, for him. And the truth was it wasn't worth it.

Hardly realising what she was doing Letty pushed away from the car and staggered wildly for several feet until she gained her balance. Then it was as she had said, small steps, one foot in front of the other. The fact that she was headed South, back towards Mexico, hardly seemed to matter.

* * *

(A/N) I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it, it's so full of emotion and get goose bumps every time I hear it. And I was listening to the other night and I could just see Letty how Dom pictured her at the moment of her death. Anyway this is just my idea of what could have happened.

Lamanth xx


	21. Up And Away

For Detective-XO

* * *

'**Up And Away' by Banned Of St Trinian's**

_And when there's madness in the air,_

_Only the mad survive oh boy,_

_And when there's madness in the air,_

_Only the bad survive oh boy,_

_There's no time to stop and stare,_

_You'll get behind the times oh yeah,_

_There's no time to stop and stare,_

_We gotta get us out of here,_

* * *

The sleek orange car wavered slightly as it sped up the steep driveway and shuddered to a stop with an unaccustomed squeal of breaks. Letty had opened the passenger door, almost before the Mazda stopped moving and bolted for the front door while Dom with still trying to extricate himself from behind the wheel. Vince, Leon and Jesse watched in bemusement as, red faced and muttering darkly their friend exited the car and followed the path his girlfriend had taken to the house.

"Leticia, I'm talking to you!" Dom bellowed, making to enter the house then jerking backwards as a loud bang filled the warm afternoon air.

Letty's snarky, and admittedly rather childish response, was a loudly yelled, "Well I'm not listening to you!"

The watching trio exchanged looks and tried to hide wide grins. From his position and the look on his face, not to mention the deafening crash, it was obvious that Letty had slammed the front door in his face and only luck had saved Dom from a broken nose and a trip to the emergence room. The two lovebirds were obviously in disagreement about something… again.

"You're acting like a spoilt brat." It was clearly the wrong thing to say if the sound of muffled thudding was any indication, and Vince and company wondered if she were pounding the door with her fists or a discarded shoe. That she would be picturing Dom's face was a given.

"Get lost you bald headed freak!" Leon couldn't suppress his laughter at Letty's choice of insult or at the expression that crossed Dom's face when he heard it.

It wasn't as if Dominic Toretto was all the concerned with how he looked, probably for the most part because he knew he looked damn good, so really Letty's words shouldn't have bothered him. But for some reason they did. Mostly it was shock, he couldn't have been more stunned if she'd slapped him with a dead fish because she didn't go for petty insults about appearance. But some of it was also anger.

And it was that ire that prompted him to open his mouth without first engaging his brain. "You want me gone? Fine I'm gone!"

With that Dom turned on his heel and strode back towards his car. Animosity rolled off of him in almost palpable waves, but he steadfastly ignored the sound of Letty's witch like cackling as it followed him. He ignored too the looks his still watching friends and work mates were giving him.

"Any second now." Vince said in an undertone as the three of them watched Dom.

His pace slowed, his head tilting to one side as if he were contemplating something, an idea that didn't quite make sense. Jesse swore he could actually pinpoint the moment when understanding hit Dom. His eyes darkened and his jaw dropped as he ground to a halt, just as the Mazda had done moments before.

"Leticia!" He literally howled with furry as he spun, charged back up to the house and started pounding on the front door. "This is my bloody house! You can not lock a man out of his own house!"

"Watch me." Was Letty's response, where as Dom was sounding more and more worked up Letty by contrast was sounding calmer. Quite possibly because in spite of him telling her that she couldn't Letty had effectively locked him out of his own home. He was the one banging away on the door.

"If you don't open this door right now so help me I'll… I'll…" Dom's mouth worked furiously as he tried to come up with an adequate threat, but it was pointless. Even if he came up with one the moment to use it effectively had passed.

"Well, you just work on that threat and get back to me when you've work it out!" Her voice started off all sweet and mocking but grew more hysterical with each word till by the end of the sentence she was screaming like a fishwife.

There was a muffled scrapping squeak as window on the second floor was shoved open, and a red-faced Mia stuck her head out. There was biro on one of her cheeks, a textbook in one hand and an expression that promised a lingering and painful death on her face. "Dominic!" Both Letty and Mia used the long version of his name when they were angry. "Just admit you were wrong and shut the hell up!"

The window slammed shut and, possibly seeking backup Dom looked across to where the three stooges stood watching. Only to see Leon and Jesse had become very interested in the sky and ground respectively, and Vince sporting an 'I told you so look'. And indeed he had, Vince had said that anyone who looked at Leticia Ortiz as a long term prospect was in need of a padded cell, and if Dom needed a thrill there were less dangerous ways to get it. Alligator wrestling for example, or slitting you wrist before swimming with Great White Sharks. Normal kind of crazy.

But Dom hadn't listened, something about the pint size tomboy had grabbed his attention and refused to let go. Their relationship was anything but smooth. Both of them were loud, stubborn, and headstrong or, depending on whom you spoke to, pigheaded. They bickered all the time, and when they argued it was mostly Letty yelling while Dom raged back and tried to duck whatever got thrown in his direction. Each had an ego the size of North America and pride that you could bounce rocks off of.

But they did love each other, of that there could be no doubt, and no matter what life threw at them they stuck together and made it work. Of course sometimes took more work than others, and judging by the way door was remaining firmly closed this was one such time.

"Letty," Dom said taking a deep breath as his visibly tried to calm himself and get a hold on his temper. "Just open the door so we can talk."

"No!" Letty spat and then added for good measure in case he had somehow managed to miss the point, "Screw you!"

One-syllable words, Jesse noted and it was truly amazing just how much force Letty could put into them. He idly wondered if the two of them were going to spend the rest of the day yelling at each other through the door or if Dom would realise that Letty had probably just shut the door and not locked it. Or even if she had locked it that he was holding his keys, and they didn't just work on the Mazda, there was one for the front door too.

While Jesse had been off in deep contemplation the verbal exchange had continued, the traded insults and exclamations becoming more barbed and heated with every passing moment.

Letty's latest howl, mostly unintelligible, as she sounded rather like an extremely pissed of banshee but ended with "conniving bastard of a weasel!"

A description which caused what little patience Dom had had left to vanish like morning mist, he did not like being compared to small members of the rodent family. He pulled his arm back and made as if to punch the front door. It would have been an impressive display of both strength and temper had Letty not chosen that precise moment to yank the door open. The result was Dom's fist striking fresh air while he stumbled and flailed as he tried to regain his balance without falling to his knees.

And would she have just loved that, Dom thought grimly, him on his knees at her feet. As it was grabbing the doorframe was the only reason his was still partly upright. He looked darkly up at Letty while she glared back down at him. And, angry though he was, with her for the stupid display of pettiness brought on by heaven only knew, and even then only maybe, he had to smile at the sight she presented.

Letty had one of those faces that could really only be appreciated when she was animated. Sun bronzed skin, with an aquiline nose humanized by a handful of freckles and a strong chin, it was pretty enough in repose. But with those jet black eyes flashing, colour high in her cheeks and that wild mass of hair blowing around her face, she was beautiful. Wild and beautiful and probably more than a little bit crazy. Perfect.

"Why are you grinning like an idiot?" She demanded, standing there legs akimbo, hands on her hips and dark eyebrows raised questioningly. He could just make out the white flash of her teeth when she perused her lips at him in disapproval or annoyance. Most likely a combination of both.

"You're bloody gorgeous." Dom said, his grin widening as his eyes trailed slowly up her body. Moving from her flip-flop, up bare legs, taking in the cut off shorts exposed midriff and bikini top before coming to rest on the face that was glaring down at him.

"No! You are not going to get round me like that, no!" Much arm waving and finger pointing, partly to emphasise the point but also because Dom's sudden and unexpected complements always flustered her accompanied the rebuttal. "If you think all it will take is a few complements to get me to forgive you then you've got another thing coming."

"Forgive me for what?" Dom asked as he continued to look up at her, he was still somewhere between standing and crouching but the exhalant view more than made up for the inconvenience.

Letty paused, tilting her head slighting to one side as she nibbled on her lower lip. Totally oblivious to the enticing picture she was presenting as she tried to recall just what she and Dom had been fighting about. "I don't know," She eventually admitted, all be it rather reluctantly. "But I'm sure it was something unforgivable."

"I'm sure I could get you to forgive me," He murmured, removing his hand from the doorframe and placing it instead on her hip, as he slowly eased himself up. "If I work hard enough."

Taking that as their Que. Jesse, Leon and Vince quickly scuttled around the side of the house and made for the safety of the back yard. Watching Dom and Letty fight was one thing. It was highly entertaining, very amusing and they could place bets on what Letty would throw at him first. And whether or not Dom would be quick enough to duck the projectile. He didn't always manage it.

But there was no way any member of the trio wanted to be around when Dom and Letty made up after wards. It was bad enough being in the same house with the two of them and the sounds that came from their room had to be heard to be believed. And no one wanted to see the pair of them in action, there was such a thing as too much sharing.

It could only be hoped that they remembered they were on the front doorstep, in view of the whole street, before they got too carried away in their apologies.

* * *

(A/N) The last one was kinda dark and heavy so I thought this time I'd give you all something light and fun. All right and more than a little bit silly. But I like young dotty and having them fight over nothing is too entertaining.

Lamanth xx


	22. Give Me Love

For Stacee13

* * *

'**Give Me Love' by Ed Sheeran**

_Give me love like never before,_

_'cause lately I've been craving more,_

_And it's been a while but I still feel the same,_

_Maybe I should let you go,_

_You know I'll fight my corner,_

_And that tonight I'll call ya,_

_After my blood is drowning in alcohol,_

_No I just wanna hold ya,_

* * *

It wasn't melancholy exactly, but some similar emotion that sent him to the bedroom. The air was warm and filled with the scents of sun and sea, and the bright light filled the room that was decorated in white and pale wood. Finishing the corona he had in hand he placed the empty bottle on the bedside table and popped the top off of the second one he had brought with him.

Taking a swig and also somehow managing to get his shit off during the process. Not that it was his beer second, he reflected as he kicked his boots off, he'd lost count of how many it would if fact make. Though the truth was he'd probably already had far more than enough he never the less put the bottle to his lips. He drained a third of it as he removed his jeans, then slumped into the edge of the bed clad only in his boxer shorts.

He couldn't remember the last time he had drunk so heavily, or the last time when he had felt so great a need to just be on his own. Silence, solitude and alcohol, three things that were not good bedfellows especially when his mood was so plaintive. Before Mia or one of the team would have been there to snap him out of whatever dark funk he had fallen into. They would have allowed him some time to wallow but when they deemed he had long enough would have sworn at him and then kicked his ass into gear.

But that was before. Now…

Now he raised the bottle to his mouth again. The muscles in his throat working as he drained it dry in several long swallows, before placing it to on the table. Then he simply allowed his body to fall heavily onto the bed. His last conscious thought before sleep overtook him was that before, everything would have been so different.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Dom?" The sound of his name softly called out tugged at him, and pulled him from his alcohol induced slumber. With difficulty, the vast amount he had drunk making his vision blur and swim, he raised his head and looked in the direction the voice had come from.

She was standing just inside the doorway, her weight resting on one hip and her arms hanging loosely at her sides. Shafts of sunlight falling around her, making the floorboards at her feet look like sun-dappled water and turning her into a lustrous blur of blazing gold. It was impossible to make out anything about her as the warm light gilded her limbs, her head haloed in brightness and her face painted in a shimmering haze.

"Oh Dom?" She called again, her voice as rich and sweet as honey, all deep and throaty and hinting at the promise of things to come.

He pushed himself up on his arms straining to get a better look at her. With slow easy movements she padded into the room. The sunlight seeming to flow up her body, like a coverlet of golden silk that was being slowly pulled away. Strong tan legs, simple white shorts, the slight shadow of her navel just showing under the cotton of her tank top. The subtle swell of her breasts and then slender column of her neck and then finally her face. Smooth and bright with youth, full, sensuous lips and eyes so dark they seemed almost black as they stared into the very heart of him.

Hair so black it looked gunmetal blue in the bright light Letty walked slowly across the room until she came to a stop looking down on him where he lay sprawled across the bed. Of course it was Letty, a voice in his mind said. His room, his bed, it couldn't have been anyone else but Letty. How could it be that he had failed to recognise her even for a moment?

"You're drunk Dominic." She said, her voice low and teasing as something darkly wicked glinted in her eyes.

"Yes." He said it as if it were something he were immensely proud of, his eyes noting the way the corners of her mouth tilted ever so slightly upwards as she leaned over him. A smile, half sly and half secretive curving her lips. He could see the amusement in the lines of her face, she wasn't angered by his inebriation on the country she found it funny. He amused her.

"Yes." She mocked crawling onto the bed beside him, the matrices dipping slightly with her movement. One hand reaching out so that her fingers could trace lazy patterns over the contours of his muscles. Smiling slyly when his skin twitched and jumped under her light teasing touch.

"You're laughing at me." He accused, feigning hurt at that fact she was having fun at his expense. But his act was ruined when she threw a leg across his body and then sat up so that she knelt astride him. He could not hold back the grin that formed spontaneously with her sudden shift of position.

For a moment she just held her self there, her hands resting lightly on his stomach as she looked down at him. Her head tilted slightly to one side in such as way that it had that wild mass of sable hair tumbling and cascading over one shoulder. Looking up at her poised atop him in such a way he thought she looked like a goddess. A slight smile pulled at her full bee stung lips as she leaned down to him.

Her lips descended upon his, capturing them in a searing kiss that was hard and rough, while in the same instant smooth and hot. He felt his mind fall away from itself and his thoughts became insignificant, incoherent, when her tongue curled itself against the seam of his lips, coaxing them apart until all he could think about was her. Her mouth all fiery heat and hardness, tasting sweet as a summer wind. It made him tingle all over as if and electric current was passing through him, while it made his body feel like it was trying to turn itself inside-out through his navel.

His hands fisted into the back of her vest-top, the resting at the base of her spine and he pulled her towards him so that they came together as one. The thin white cotton feeling smooth and cool against his hands in sharp contrast to the heat of her body. He pulled her closer than he could ever remember them been before, bodies pressed flush against each other. The heat building between them until he thought it might burn them both to ashes.

Her felt her hands shift, gradually travelling across his chest and over his shoulders until she was cradling his face in her palms. He could feel the calluses on her hands as a slight roughness against his skin and she tilted his head to deepen their kiss still further. And under the sweet honey taste of her lips he could detect a slight salty tang creeping in at the corner of his mouth.

Reluctantly he pulled away from her, as he became aware of a slight dampness against his skin. Eyes still closed he reached up with one hand and ran a finger across her cheek, the moisture confirming what he had suspected. She was crying. Crying her heart out even as she kissed him as if her very life depended upon it.

"Dom," She said his name so softly, as if it hurt her to do so, and when he opened his eyes and looked at her there was such a look of pity in her eyes that it all but stole the breath from his lungs. "You know that none of this real."

He looked at her as if she were out of her mind. She was here in his arms, he could feel the warmth of her skin under his hands and tastes the sweetness of her on his tongue. Her weight was a solid presence pushing him down onto the mattress, there was no way it could be anything other than real. He could even smell the mingled vanilla and cinnamon scent that always lingered on her skin.

"You're real." His voice was firm and commanding. "You're everything." And then, not wanting to endure the sadness in her eyes a moment longer, he simply reached out and drew her back down him, covering her mouth with his.

He caught the back of her neck with one hand, holding her hostage as his mouth moved over hers. Loosing himself in how good she felt against him and how delicious her lips tasted even coated with the salt of her tears. Her hands grabbed at him, pulled him to her and then held him in place as if she never intended to let him go.

After that thinking became unnecessary.

He fed the demons in his soul with her skin, her scent and the sounds she made when he pleased her. And when his muscles and bones felt as if the were made of warm lead he gathered her close, letting her buried her head in his shoulder. Sucking in deep lungfuls of her scent, warm and sweet, vanilla with a hint of cinnamon, sleep slowly claimed him.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Dom?" Again the sound of his name pulled him from sleep.

Alcohol still fogged his mind, but not enough to keep him from realising that something was terribly wrong. There was no one lying next to him in the bed, the sheets were cool and the voice that had called had come from the other side of the room. Panic jerked him fully away and pulled him upright, eyes flying wildly about the room until they came to rest on the figure standing just inside the doorway. In one horrific moment the truth became clear to him and he could not keep the anguish from briefly showing on his face.

"Dom?" Panic filled her voice and she started towards him, worry twisting her mouth. "What's wrong!?"

He didn't answer her, just rolled onto his side and gave her his back. A silent indication that he still wanted to be alone. He felt rather than heard Elena leave the room and silently cursed himself for being such a dick.

The truth was that he didn't want to be alone, but the one person he wanted to be with was the one that was forever out of his reach.

* * *

(A/N) I like to think that Dom dreams about Letty, and the first time I heard this song I could just see him lying on the bed looking at her standing in the doorway. So close, yet also so out of his reach. Enjoy and thank you for your continuing support.

Lamanth xx


	23. Homewrecker

For duchessduchie

* * *

'**Homewrecker' by Gretchen Wilson**

_I'm sure you waited for a long, long time,_

_To find a man like mine,_

_But honey you're too late,_

_So before you go and make your move,_

_Maybe me and you should get a few things straight,_

_There's two ways we can do this,_

_I'll let you decide,_

_You can take it somewhere else or we can take it outside you little,_

* * *

Vince knew he could never be considered smart, not that he was stupid, far from it in fact. But he would never be smart the way people like say Mia were. He was street smart, not book smart, and for a guy who liked nothing better than to spend his days taking apart and reassembling engines that was fine. He was currently working away diligently on a 1979 Mercury Cougar and trying to pretend that all was right in the world.

But, like rats and insects, that start to run even before the first tremor of the earthquake hits, he had a sixth sense for when something big was about to go down. And currently Letty was being far too nice. In his experience, and he had a lot of it, Letty was only ever nice when she was saving up to be especially vile at a later date.

Currently her oh so sweet smile was fixed on an admittedly stunning redhead. Anna Cavanaugh had been a contemporary of himself and Dom in high school, and at one point she and Dom had been quite the item. Anna with her green eyes the colour of spring leaves had been the only girl apart from Letty that Dom had been remotely serious about. But half way through their final year, her family had moved to Boston and the romance had ended.

Three years later and she was back in L.A. for some yet as unknown reason. She'd come strolling into the garage, all slender legs and elegant lines and designer jeans, looking as if she had just stepped out of the pages of Vogue. A warm smile had lit up her delicately made-up face as she had made a beeline for Dom. She had hugged him warmly in greeting at the just the moment that Letty emerged from the back office.

Vince had seen the ugly look that had momentarily crossed her face, and thanked heaven she wasn't carrying a crowbar or a glass bottle. But the expression had vanished just as quickly and ever since Letty had been as nice as pie, and apparently hadn't noticed the way that Anna kept giving Dom flirtatious glances from those oh so green eyes of hers. Warning signals were going off inside his head and Vince was trying to work out how he could get out before all hell broke lose.

In the midst of all this, Dom was completely oblivious. All of his attention focused under the hood of Anna's admittedly fine classic convertible. The fact that his ex was alternating between throwing lusty glances his way and looks of thinly veiled hatred in Letty's completely passed him by. Though he had glanced up, his expression mildly perplexed when Letty had offered to get Anna a coffee while she waited. His normally tempestuous girl acting like a little beam of sunshine was enough to divert him from the convertible's cherry red charms, even if only for a moment.

The sound of the phone from the office broke the tension that was slowly but surely filling the garage. Still under the relative safety of the dark blue Cougar Vince was not going to come out even if it turned out of be Mia on the other end offering him phone sex. He was waiting for muffled swearing when Dom sent Letty to answer it, knowing that the mechanic would not be happy leaving her man with his ex. But in stead of swearing it was Dom's familiar heavy tread that filled the air. Perhaps, Vince thought, his friend hadn't been as oblivious of the animosity between Anna and Letty as he had thought.

The truth was Dom had been fully aware of what was going on. For all her class and elegant ways, Anna had never been exactly subtle, and had no problem making it clear what she was after. The fact that he was plainly not interested hadn't bothered her for a moment, neither had the fact that he was obviously with Letty. And that had bugged Dom.

Sure he was used to girls trying it on, and he enjoyed the attention even if he had no intention of ever acting on it. But they'd smile and flirt and then run for the hills when Letty flexed her claws in their direction. He liked the way she wasn't afraid to defend what was hers, and that she'd state her claim on him in public like that. But the way Anna had simple dismissed Letty as if she were of no consequence had riled him no end.

No one got to dismiss his girl like that and get away with it. But he knew Letty wouldn't appreciate him trying to interfere, fight her battles for her as it were, so he'd done the next best thing. He'd leave the two girls alone to work it out and then, if necessary, he'd wait until nightfall to help Letty bury the body of his former lover.

The redhead let her eyes follow Dominic Toretto as he moved with an easy grace towards the back office and the ringing phone. His work overalls did a good job of covering him while still managing to hint at the perfection that lurked underneath. When she had arrived back in L.A. she had made a point of looking up her ex, and was now very glad that she had, he still had one of the most delicious butts she had ever seen.

Getting reacquainted was going to be a lot of fun. There was just one small problem, she thought as the sound of a creeper rolling out from under a car caught her attention, and here it came right on que. Anna watched as the dark haired girl slid out from under a silvery blue import, her face flushed, her hair in disarray and her eyes overly bright. The redhead had to work to suppress her smile, the girl was a mess she even had a streak of oil running over one cheek.

"Anna?" Letty questioned with a light smile as she approached the other female, though it was the sort of smile a shark might give a drowning man. "I can call you Anna, right?"

Despite his frequent, if silent, promises to stay out of whatever was going to go on, Vince couldn't resist rolling out from under the car just enough to see what was going on. The two girls were facing off, the five feet separating them fairly crackling with tension. Their expressions were neutral, without any trace of animosity, but their body language put him in mind to two dogs circling one another. Waiting for the moment to strike.

"Sure you can Lotty." Anna's expression was condescending, the sort a parent might give to a temperamental toddler. It said that she was the one in control, but she was willing to indulge the spoilt child.

"Hmm, it's Letty actually." She said, the smile still in place, except the expression was now frozen. All brittle and bright like ice about to shatter.

"Woops, my mistake." Insincerity dripped from each and every syllable, as Anna deliberately pushed Letty's buttons. Personally Vince would have thought grabbing a tiger by the tail might have been safer, he'd seen Letty lose her temper a time or two and the displays were spectacular to say the least.

"No, your mistake was thinking you could just coming walking in here and try and make a move on my man." Letty's tone was still all sweetness and light and Vince wondered if he had time to dive back under the 75 Mercury before she exploded like a five foot five stick of dynamite.

"Your man?" The amount of scepticism Anna managed to inject into those two words had to be heard to be believed. That she didn't believe Letty capable of keeping Dom satisfied was written all over her delicately featured face.

"My man." Letty's voice was cold and firm and there was a razor edge sharpness to her tone.

It wasn't exactly a pleasant tone, but it wasn't threatening either. At least not openly, but right down inside Vince's bones it bounced back a harmonic that said: at this point, we can go one of two ways. There is the easy way and that is very easy. You'll never _know_ about the hard way.

Vince saw the way the laughter in Anna's eyes faded and a calculated looked replaced the amused expression. It was a look he remembered well from high school, the redhead was suddenly realising that dismissing the young latina out of hand might have been a mistake. One that was figuratively, and possibly physically, going come back and kick her in the ass.

A sneer twisted Anna's lips as she took a calculated step towards the shorter girl, eyes wide and nostrils flaring. Vince noted the way Letty subtly tensed and the way her arm twitched and decided he really did not want to play witness to whatever happened next. The blue Cougar over his head muffled the exchange that followed, but he clearly heard the sharp crack of skin meeting skin, and the strangled gasp that followed it.

"Everything good here?" Dom asked a moment later when he emerged once again from the office, the business on the phone clearly concluded.

Vince, yet again, rolled out from under the car he was working on and watched as Dom's eyes flickered from Letty to Anna and back again. Taking in the aggressive stance of his girlfriend and the predatory gleam in her eye, the way she stood with her arms held lose and her fingers slightly curled. Then there was also the defensive way the redhead stood with her shoulders hunched, her eyes fixed on the ground and head slightly turned, one hand pressed to her cheek.

"Oh we're good." Letty responded the smile she was directing at Anna widening ever so slightly as she spoke. Before her gaze moved to him and her tone shifted completely. "We're always good."

Less than two minuets later Anna Cavanaugh was in her car and gone with hardly a civil word of farewell. Not that Dom or Letty seemed to notice, Vince reflected, they were too wrapped up in each other to notice much of anything. Not even the way Vince winced when the departing convertible squealed loudly, objecting vocally to the harsh way the redhead was handling it.

* * *

(A/N) Cus there are just so many of those 'and a girl from Dom's past shows up' stories clogging up the fandom and the truth is if a girl did show up Letty would kick her to the curb in five seconds flat. Sorry for the delay, to make up for it I'll try and update again before the week's out.

Lamanth xx


	24. Remembering Sunday

For mysteriesabound1

* * *

'**Remembering Sunday' by All Time Low**

_Now this place seems familiar to him,_

_She pulled on his hand with a devilish grin,_

_She led him upstairs, she led him upstairs,_

_Left him dying to get in,_

_Forgive me, I'm trying to find,_

_My calling, I'm calling at night,_

_I don't mean to be a bother, but have you seen this girl?_

_She's been running through my dreams,_

_And it's driving me crazy, it seems,_

_I'm gonna ask her to marry me,_

* * *

How had he got roped into this? Dom asked himself as he shifted aside a box of old shoes to reveal a moth-eaten teddy bear with only one eye. He should have known better than to agree to help his niece search the attic, but the fifteen-year-old had just batted those big baby blues at him and he stood no chance. Jessica 'Jessie' O'Conner knew just how to manipulate people to get what she wanted. She had, after all, leant from the best, her mother.

The girl was currently only half-visible as she rummaged around through still more boxes, surrounded by stacks of old paperbacks. Now that he thought about it, Dom wasn't even sure what it was he was meant to be helping the girl look for.

"Hmm." Jessie lifted the famed photo, depicting two young people dressed in black, out of the bottom of the box and studied it carefully. The man was obviously a much younger version of her uncle, but she had no idea who the Hispanic looking girl was. She was pretty, in a down to earth tomboy sort of way, and the way she was wrapped around the younger Dominic Toretto clearly spoke of an intimate relationship.

"Uncle Dom?" Jessie called, and when he looked around turned the frame so he could see the photo. "Who's she?"

She watched, stunned as her uncle's eyes widen with the sudden shock of recognition and his jaw actually dropped slightly as he drew in a deep gasping breath. Framed photo still in hand Jessie scrambled through the accumulated junk of years to where he sat. He'd rocked backwards on his heels as if he'd received a physical blow and under his natural tanned skin had turned pale.

"Uncle Dom?" She questioned, her voice sounding small and unsure.

For all her life her uncle had been this force of nature, a huge solid presence. It didn't really seem to matter what was going on he was always just like a massive rock that kept her anchored to real life or something safe that she could hide behind. Seeing him so shaken, and by an old photo at that, scared her for reasons she couldn't even begin to name.

"Sorry. Sorry, I'm fine." Dom said, shaking his head as if to clear it of cobwebs while he patted the girl reassuringly. "I just didn't know your Mom still had this."

"Uh, who is she?" Jessie asked carefully, still worried by her uncle's startling reaction and his pale complexion. But she was curious to know who this girl was, especially if just seeing her photo was enough to unsettle her normally unshakeable uncle.

"She is… she was just a girl I knew once." As he spoke his fingers hovered just over the girl's face, as if he wanted to touch it but couldn't quite bring himself to.

"Just a girl?" And she didn't even try to keep the disbelief out of her tone, no way her uncle would have reacted like that to 'just a girl', but if Dom picked up on her scathing tone he chose to ignore it.

"Just the girl who'd always lived down the road." He couldn't seem to take his eyes from the picture, and his voice was muted as if he were speaking more to himself than to her. "First time I saw her I just knew. I knew one day I was gonna marry her."

"What happened!?" She blurted out the question before she could help herself, her voice sounding too loud in the warm, dusty air of the attic. For as long as she could remember her uncle hadn't ever been in a relationship that lasted more than six months. His life was just a string of causal girlfriends that never lasted long, so to hear him talk about marriage shocked her to the core.

"I lost her, a long, long time ago." Jessie watched the shadow of grief pass across his face, deepening the lines around his eyes and suddenly making him look old and tired. "I was stupid, so stupid, and I lost the best thing that ever happened to me."

"She's beautiful." And really she was, not conventionally pretty it was true but there was just something about her. Something in the curve her mouth and shape of her eyes and the way that her features came together to create something stunning.

"Yeah, she was the most beautiful person I ever met." Simple honesty was all she could detect in his voice, he wasn't giving an opinion but stating a simple fact. He'd never seen another person that could compare with the girl caught forever in that one timeless moment.

"What… what was her name?" Jessie asked, unable to take her blue eyes from the photo held in the simple black frame.

"Letty," The word was almost lost he said it so quietly, almost reverently. Her father never spoke her mother's name that way, and Jessie wondered why that was. "Her name was Letty."

Unable to think what to say the dark haired teen just nodded while she studied the photo and the two people it depicted. Her uncle looked so happy, happier than Jessie had ever seen him in real life. He wasn't even looking at the girl, Letty, seated in his lap, but the way he was holding her… like he never intended to let her go. And Letty herself had a soft smile on her lips, one arm was around the back of her uncle's neck while her other hand was just touching the bottom of his face.

The pair of them looked so happy, so very much in love and knowing that her uncle Dom had lost that made Jessie feel as if she wanted to cry.

"You promise me something now Jessica." Dom said, using her given name so she would understand just how serious a request he was about to make of her. He'd made so many mistakes in his life and he had to make sure that something good came out of it, even if it was only to spare his niece the sort of pain that he had to live.

"Course." She said it without hesitation because she trusted him implicitly, her uncle wasn't the sort to ask unreasonable things of her. That was left to her parents. Promise to eat all your greens, be back by ten, not spend hours in the bath and use up all the hot water. And the best one of all, not to get behind the wheel of a car until she was sixteen. Unreasonable.

"When you find that person, the one you love so much that hurts. You hold on to them as tight as you can, hold on with everything you've got and never let them go." With great care he took the framed picture from her unresisting hands, his eyes never once leaving the face of the smiling girl captured in the photo. "You promise?"

Jessica looked from her uncle to the photo he held so carefully in his hands, as if afraid that one careless action might break it, and back again. "I promise."

* * *

(A/N) Hmm, I love this song, even though it depresses the hell out of me because it's just so beautiful. I'm not sure where the idea for this came from, but once it came I just had to write it and I bet you can all guess just which photo it is Jessie found. Love ya

Lamanth xx


	25. It Girl

For Jarnac50 - cus you wanted happy

* * *

'**It Girl' by Jason Derulo**

_You could be my it girl,_

_Baby you're the shit girl,_

_Lovin' you could be a crime,_

_Crazy how we fit girl,_

_This is it girl give me 25 to life,_

_I just wanna rock all night long,_

_And put you in the middle of my spotlight,_

_You could be my it girl,_

_You're my biggest hit girl,_

* * *

"… and so if we worked together we could make a killing." Hector was saying, his eyes bright as he explained his idea for the up coming Race Wars. "Seriously if we did this as a joint thing we could take it all."

"I see where you're coming from, and it makes sense. Plus you wouldn't have to face any of my team." Dom responded and couldn't resist adding the slight dig; he might be king of the streets but his team also ruled. "Who you thinking of?"

"Me, and a couple of my boys." Hector said, him two of his best, plus team Toretto would be more than enough to dominate at the desert race event. "The rest won't know what's hit them… not even that Asian crew who've been –"

"Hold that thought." Dom said, raising a hand to cut him off mid sentence, and started to walk off even before he had finished speaking.

"Oh but Dom!" A famine voice whined, its owner making to move quickly after him. The fact that he had been ignoring her since she sidled up to him and that he's brushed her away like a mosquito apparently hadn't deterred her.

"Hey, hey. Slow your roll girl." Hector said, snagging the redhead by one arm and pulling her backwards. He'd seen just what had so effectively grabbed Toretto's attention. "You don't wanna mess with this one."

The redhead pulled free of his grip and shot him a poisonous look from cat like eyes, before turning to stare in the direction Dom had departed in. She could see 'this one' as Hector had called her and she sure didn't look like anything special as far as she was concerned.

XXXXXXXXXX

It hadn't been until he saw the Nissan 240SX with its distinctive magenta and gold paint-work roll into view that Dom realised that he had been watching for it all night. It was only with the onset of relief that he understood how tense her not being there had made him. For someone so used to being master of his own fate this need to have another person with him, to know she was all right, was a new feeling. But one he decided he rather liked.

Letty Ortiz climbed out and bumped the door shut with her hip, looking around as she did so. With one hand she pushed dark hair out of her face while the other slipped in Nissan's keys into a jacket pocket. She hadn't spotted him yet and he took the opportunity to take her in. The dark jeans hugged her figure as did the olive green buster she paired with it. A feminine outfit, but one that was also comfortable and easy to move in. It was so very her.

She stood out from the crowed, her outfit and attitude setting her apart from the majority of the other young woman that called the street racing scene home. Yet at the same time she fitted in perfectly. Surrounded by flashy imports outfitted with every mod con going and lovingly maintained muscle cars that could out perform most new models Letty looked right at home. In this place, in this world was just where she belonged. Just as he belonged to it, and together they could rule it all.

She made a second sweep of the crowed and this time spotted him headed in her direction. The smile that crossed her face all but stole his breath. He knew that Letty thought her face was at best passably pretty, if not all that thrilling, an opinion he highly disagreed with. And when she smiled with the full force of her personality, that beautiful face became even more vibrant and striking. It was just such a smile she was currently giving him.

"Sorry I'm late." She called out as soon as he was with in shouting distance, and ginned even more when Dom shook his head, indicating her lateness didn't matter.

"Just glad you're here." He said slipping an arm around her shoulders and marvelling, as he always did, at just how perfectly she fit there. Her body fitting snugly against his, as they moved off their paces instantly sinking together without conscious thought.

"Like anything could keep me away." Letty said, her eyes sparkling as she craned her head to stare greedily at a Plymouth Road Runner with an intricate forest green and silver paint job.

For all that she drove a Nissan 240 and loved working on the imports that constantly rolled through the garage, Letty was an American muscle girl at heart. It was a privet joke between them that she was only dating him to get closer to his father's Dodge Charger. After all, as Letty liked to point out, its body was vastly superior to his.

"You want in tonight?" Dom asked, a smile in his tone as he watched the way his girl's eyes darted here and there taking in everything. It wouldn't matter now old she got, how many years she spent around the high performance machines, Letty would always act like a kid in a candy store at any race meet. Her never ending enthusiasm was just one of the things he loved about her.

"Nah," She said after a moment's consideration, tearing her eyes from a black Nissan Skyline, nowhere near as good as her own Nissan, and turning to meet his gaze. "Not tonight, my girl ain't in the mood."

He didn't push, though he loved the feeling that came with watching Letty race it was second only to the sensation that came when he was behind the wheel, if she wasn't up for it there was no way he could change her mind. And trying would just start a pointless fight. Even if he had no idea what her car not being in the mood meant. Cars didn't have moods, but if the driver didn't feel right, then they didn't feel right. And if Letty wanted to put it down to how her ride felt then so be it.

"Of course," Her voice, low and teasing, interrupted his musings and he turned his head to see her dark eyes fixed on him, mischief sparkling in their depths. "The only thing that would stop you from racing tonight would be a lack of pulse."

"I don't know," Dom murmured as if seriously considering the possibility of something taking priority over his desire to win, leaning down to nibble on her ear as he did so. "I can think of something that might stop me."

"But that comes afterwards, remember?" Letty mocked, as if he were silly for not remembering the correct order in which things happened.

But she stopped dead, turned to him, took his head in her hands and kissed him hot and hard right there for all to see. Her display of affection took away whatever small sting her words might have held, and Dom was all too happy to kiss her back in full view of everyone. For all that Letty liked to show the world just who be belonged to, he was just a keen for everyone to know that he was the only one who got to touch her.

There was no telling how long they would have carried on, Letty's kisses had been know to make him late to race before, but a loud wolf whistle interrupted them before the could get too involved. They pulled apart, but still stood bodies touching, as Vince approached muttering something about unwilling voyeurism, proving yet again that he wasn't the all brawn no brain thug so many mistook him for.

"We doing this or not?" He questioned and then throwing the pair a filthy look as he did so, added just in case anyone misunderstood what he was talking about. "And I mean the race."

"Sure man." Dom said waving a hand at Vince to indicate he'd be right with him, before returning his attention to Letty once more. "You gonna ride with me?"

"And then what incentive would you have to be first over the finish line?" Letty sassed, and her expression was all sly smiles and darkly glinting eyes as she teased him with a threat the both of them knew she had no desire what so ever to follow through on.

"What?" Dom widened his eyes theatrically as he stared to her in mock disbelief. "Are you telling me you'll leave with whoever's first over the line?"

"Did I say that?" Her smile was one of pure wicked delight, as she stood on tip-toe and brushed her lips teasingly over his. "You just better hope you're as fast as you think you are Toretto."

And with that as her parting comment Letty slipped away through the crowd before he had the chance to do more that swot playfully at her backside. In spite of her words, Dom knew full well that she wouldn't leave with anyone but him, she was his girl after all. And he also understood that Letty had no idea just how many guys would be willing to fight each other for a spot in the race if there was even the slightest chance that she would go home with the winner even if the winner were not Dominic Toretto.

Still it did go to prove she knew just how to motivate him, as if he needed any more encouragement to win.

* * *

(A/N) You wanted happy and I give you happy. True it is also pointless and plot less, but that can be said about most of my work, never the less here is some cute fluff to make you Dotty supporters squeal like the fangirls we all are. Kisses

Lamanth xx


	26. I Want Candy

For layali86

* * *

'**I Want Candy' by Good Charlotte **

_Candy on the beach there's nothing better,_

_But I like candy when it's wrapped in leather,_

_Someday soon I'll make her mine,_

_And then I'll have candy all the time,_

* * *

Mia didn't actually look up from her book until Dom had given up on calling her name and knocking politely on her door. Only when he barged into her bedroom did she bother to glance his way, but even then she remained sprawled across her bed, half her attention still on the book in her hand. It was a rather intellectually challenging 'who done it?' and Mia was eager to find out who in fact had done it, she therefore did not appreciate the interruption one bit.

Dom already vexed beyond belief by an afternoon shopping and the way she had ignored him, stomped across the room reminding Mia irresistibly of the T-Rex from Jurassic Park. Reluctantly putting the book to one side she reflected that the extinct reptile probably had around the same IQ as her brother and the lord knew they had similar personalities. Though the odds of the dinosaur invading her room were slim to none, making it highly preferable to one Dominic Toretto.

Satisfied that he had her attention, at least for the moment, Dom explained what he wanted and scowled at the sneer his sister give him. It was her standard expression anytime he asked her a favour. Still used as he was to being adored by all it was sometimes hard to deal with the fact that his little sister was a brat who would be more inclined to point and laugh if she found him in trouble than to help him out. The problem was she was also the only female available for him to seek advice from.

"And you couldn't just get her an egg because…?" Mia blinked up at him innocently, her expression in direct contrast to the snarky sarcasm her tone carried. After all she knew full well just why Dom hadn't just bought an Easter egg, but it was fun to wind him up and she never passed up the opportunity to do so.

"Look all I want is an opinion," Dom said through gritted teeth as he ran his free hand over his face. If he could he'd have turned on his heel left her to it, but there was no one else he could ask. "So if you could dial back on the smart ass routine."

"Fine," Mia said as she finally pushed herself into a sitting position, if her brother didn't appreciate her razor sharp wit that was his loss not hers. She knew she was funny. "Hand it over."

Thinking even as he did so that this was probably a mistake, Dom handed over the carrier he'd been holding. Mia pulled the folded garment from the bag, set the plastic aside and snapped the shirt open with one practiced flick of her wrist. She held the T-shirt at arm's length, studying it more intently than she needed to while Dom fidgeted in the silence.

The T-shirt was made of good quality black cotton, V-necked and cut in such a way that is would cling to and flatter the female form. It had short capped sleeves and in white bore the legend 'Happiness is German Engineering, Belgium Chocolate and Italian Cooking'. As a substitute for an Easter egg it was actually a rather good choice, especially considering the girl it was intended for. Despite herself Mia had to admit she was impressed be her brother's choice, not that she would tell him that.

"Well?" Dom snapped exasperatedly after several long minutes had dragged by. It was a novelty T-shirt after all not a one of a kind piece of Haute Couture by some wold famous designer. It was just a silly little thing and it didn't deserve the very intense scrutiny Mia was currently giving it.

"First off, I know in this little family of ours I'm the one with the least car knowledge, but Letty drives a Nissan 240 and lusts after a Plymouth Road Runner." Dark eyes looked up at him through even darker lashes, but he wasn't taken in for a moment by the oh so sweet smile she wore. "Neither of which, according to my very limited understanding come under the heading of 'German Engineering'. But what do I know."

"Is that it?" There was a muscle jumping in Dom's jaw, a sure sign that his temper was being pushed to breaking point, and irritation had turned his eyes from bitter chocolate to frozen onyx. It was a warning sign that Mia ignored as only a little sister could, because while Dom in a rage might scare the hell out of most people Mia found her older brother's _temper tantrums_ funny.

"Not even close. I also happen to know that, Belgium or otherwise, she doesn't care much for chocolate." The grin Mia gave him as he snatch the shirt from her hands, was more commonly found topped by a grey fin and moving at a rapid pace towards drowning men. It also tended to be made up of razor sharp teeth. "Though I guess that explains why you went with the shirt rather than the egg."

"Next time I ask you for an opinion," Dom seethed as he snatched up the discarded bag and headed for the door. "Remind me that I really don't care about anything you have to say." The last word was punctuated by the slamming of her bedroom door and it was all she could do not to burst out laughing.

"As for the 'Italian Cooking' part," Mia called out loudly enough that her voice would carry through the door and probably to the floor below. "You can't cook and I don't want to know what Letty _eating Italian_ involves."

Dom's snarled response to that was muted by the space that separated them, but Mia managed to make out the words brat somewhere in all the muttering. She smiled as she reached out once more for her book, happy in the knowledge that she had fulfilled her role as little sister by irritating and mocking her brother in the course of one conversation. Good work, even by her standards.

XXXXXXXXXX

Later that night she had cause to regret her smugness, because while she may not have had any idea what Letty _eating Italian_ involved, the sounds coming from Dom's bedroom certainly painted a very vivid picture. Even with her head buried under two pillows, the noises the two of them were making managed to reach her. Payback was a bitch, and so was her so called best friend. Mia didn't even know how to start to describe her brother.

* * *

(A/N) I wasn't going to do anything for Easter, mostly cus I couldn't come up with an idea that I liked, then this just popped into my head. Also I love the Good Charlotte version of this song, and I think it fits Letty better than the others. Happy, late, Holidays.

Lamanth xx


	27. Sail

For mac-reye

* * *

'**Sail' by AWOLNATION**

_This is how I show my love,_

_I made it in my mind because,_

_I blame it on my A.D.D. baby,_

_This is how an angel dies,_

_I blame it on my own sick pride,_

_Blame it on my A.D.D. baby,_

_Sail! Sail! Sail! Sail! Sail!_

_Maybe I should cry for help,_

_Maybe I should kill myself,_

* * *

If someone rolled into a street race in a car they couldn't race in the odds were that they were a newcomer who had no idea what they were getting into. Or were perhaps one of the rare ones who looked at the cars as pieces of artwork and didn't care how fast they went. Either way if someone showed up in an unraceable car, they could be safely ignored providing they kept their heads down and didn't get in the way of the wrong people.

But when it was Letty Ortiz who showed up in the 70 Plymouth Road Runner that had belonged to her recently dead father rather than her own Nissan 240SX, warning flags went up. Letty was a racer and had one of the best cars around, built from the group up by Team Toretto, not the sort of ride to be passed over lightly. No more than its driver was. And while it was true that the dark green Plymouth had been lovingly maintained it was by no definition a ten-second car.

For a moment every head turned to look at the latest arrival, brows furrowed and breath held in confusion at the strange turn of events. Then Letty climbed from behind the wheel and every head instantly tuned from her. She never dressed the same way other girls who flocked to the race scene did, preferring tight jeans and tank tops to short skirts and boob tubs. But tonight even they were gone replaced by head to toe black leather.

A short biker style jacket paired with pants so tight they fit her like a second skin and finished off with big butt stomping steal toe capped boots. Opinions of the outfit ranged from hot to scary to dominatrix whose latex was at the cleaners, and no one dared to voice a single one. But Dom knew better, and from the worried glance his sister gave him understood that she knew too. Letty looked ready and willing to start a one woman war and a real bloody one at that.

He had grown up with Letty. He had watched over the years as she changed from a little tomboy with scabs on her knees into a gangly klutz who was all knees and elbows and tripped over her own feet. Then into a young woman, with brains and beauty that could go anywhere and take on anyone. He could read her moods they way other people could read the headlines of the morning paper. He knew what the outfit, the car and the way anger was rolling off Letty like a physical thing that had people scurrying out of her way meant. This was Letty on the edge, spoiling for a fight. This was trouble. Big trouble.

Picking up on the warning signs too, Vince moved through the crowed and tried to intercept her. But she tossed off the hand he put on her arm, her face twisting as she snarled something at him that didn't carry over the noise of the crowed. Then when he tired again to stop her Letty bawled her fist and made as if to take a swing at him, at which point Vince shot Dom a hopeless look and gave up. He'd do a lot, but he wouldn't start a knock down drag out fight, not with Letty, not in the middle of a race meet.

When Mia made a move as if she intended to go to her friend, reason with her perhaps, Dom grabbed her and roughly hauled her back. Letty was unpredictable enough on a good day, but on a bad day there was no telling what she might do. And this looked like it was shaping up to be a really bad day. Not that Dom thought Letty, looking for a fight and crazy with rage though she was, would ever hit Mia. But she might well shove her out of the way if she managed to get between the latina and whatever it was she was after.

When she turned to look at him, dark eyes narrowing in confusion and mouth opening to form a question, he just shook his head. Something or someone had set Letty off, put her a mood the likes of which he had only seen her in a time or two before. And while he didn't know who or what the cause might be, one thing he did know was that it would be best of all of them if Mia kept her distance. At least until Letty had blown off at least part of the head of steam she had built up. Better still would be if no one got within ten feet of the raging latina.

Giving his sister a squeeze on the shoulder, a silent command that she stay with Leon and Jesse, he moved off on an intercept course. As he moved Dom tried to work out who exactly Letty was heading for as there were a number of groups in the general direction she was going. Hector was there were several of his boys, but he didn't think that was where she was headed. Hector and Letty got on, and even in the mood she was in he doubted she'd be able to provoke him into a physically fight. A screaming match, yes, but not an all-out bawl.

Behind them were a couple of groups made up of typical racer boys and their scantily clad hangers on so they probably weren't Letty's targets either. Most of the males were in awe of the dark haired young woman and the girls would rather give up their high heels than get into a confrontation with her. Letty hadn't needed to resort violence to deal with racer chasers in years, her sharp tongue was more than enough to send them scampering for the hills.

Dom was just coming to the conclusion that Letty was just stalking in a random direction in the hopes of bumping into someone and starting a street fight that way, when a car moved and his blood ran cold. His lover, temper rising from her like a black cloud, was headed towards a group at the centre of which was a young Asian man. His good looks and slight smile did nothing to disguise the fact that he was a grade 'A' shit.

Dom grimaced and picked up his pace, there was no way he could allow Letty to match into a group containing Johnny Tran, especially not in the mood she was currently in. Picking a fight was one thing, but starting one with Tran with his whole posy looking on was more like suicide. Letty would probably be more than capable of holding her own against Tran in a fist fight, but if the sneering Asian didn't have a weapon concealed somewhere about him Dom would never drive a car again.

"Stop it!" He hissed as he seized hold of her arm and physically dragged her to a stop. Letty stopped, spun and lashed out with a fist, all in one smooth flowing movement. If Dom hadn't have been expecting such a reaction she would have laid him out flat. But he knew her and therefor managed to grab her hand before it struck.

"Enough." Dom's voice was low and dangerous, as he continued to haul Letty back the way to had come, ignoring the way she thrashed and struggled in his hold.

Everyone was pointedly ignoring the two of them, with the exception of the team who were watching worriedly and Tran who was watching with an amused smile. Clearly he didn't realise just how close he had come to being on the receiving end of Letty's fury, a thing he wouldn't have walked away from unscathed.

Letty was literally shaking with the force of her anger, adrenalin flowing through her blood and making it bubble like acid. As Dom all but dragged her towards the car he reflected that these days she always seemed to be angry. Not with anything in particular, just with the whole world in general. First his father had been killed, then he had been sent down for what he did to Linder and then not three months after he was released Letty's father was killed in action.

And all the fury that Letty had supressed for so long had bust whatever dam she had built and was threating to drown them all.

"Get in," Dom growled, as he pushed Letty towards the passenger side of the Plymouth, adding when she opened her mouth to object. "Get in or I'll drive it off without you."

That did it. Running on blind rage though she was Letty still wouldn't let him drive off in her father's car. It meant too much. But that didn't stop her muttering threats under her breath as Dom drove, telling him that though he had gotten them out of a volatile situation Letty was still looking for someone to unleash her built up fury on. And with his actions Dom had reduced her number of targets one. Himself.

As he pulled to a stop at a red light Dom tried to work out the best place to take Letty in her current mood. He pulled out his phone pulled up his sister's number, Mia answered on the third ring. "Drive my car home."

He hung up without waiting for a response, trusting Mia to do what he asked and not trusting what Letty would do if he took his eyes off of her long enough to go back for the Mazda. There was no way he could take Letty back to his house, even though he had left early and without racing he knew a crowd would congregate at his home within the next hour. Too many innocent bystanders if she really lost it.

Dom could feel her eyes on him, burning into the side of his face, silently demanding why he hadn't moved even though the light had turned green. He ignored her, there was nothing behind him and he was still thinking. Dropping Letty at her own place wasn't really an option either. Siena Ortiz was an amazing woman but the death of her husband had hit her hard and she was in no state to deal with her homicidal daughter.

All of which meant there was only really one place he could take Letty where she wouldn't be able to hurt herself or anyone else. The garage.

He drove the Plymouth inside and cut the engine, noting how out of place the old muscle car looked among the flashy imports that were currently in the shop. Even the one regular car that was in for a service was an azure blue Subaru Impreza that wouldn't have looked out of place on the race scene, providing no one looked under its hood. Letty had been daring someone to say something by driving the Road Runner tonight, rather than her own Nissan 240, and from the look on her face she was still looking for a fight.

She proved Dom's assumption right when the first thing she did after they got out was take another swing at him. She missed, almost over balanced, but somehow managed to use her momentum to shift her weight and hit out at him again. After that everything became blurred and disjointed.

Letty was yelling and lashing out him while Dom did his best to get hold of her without getting smacked in the face. It was making him more than a little mad himself, here he was trying to help her and in return she was trying to claw his eyes out. And all the while she screamed at him. Not words, or at least if there were words he couldn't make them out, but harsh sounds like a wild animal shrieking in pain. He wasn't quite sure how it happened; one moment she was writhing in his grip trying to pull free and the next she was holding him closer.

Her lips were hot and bruising against his and it was all the incitement Dom needed. Her mouth was punishing, demanding that he respond with equal force. This hadn't been what he had planned, Dom thought, both he and Letty struggling with the fastenings on their clothes as they ended up pressed against the dark green 70 Plymouth. But if it was a choice between him screwing her up against a dead father's car or Tran trying to beat the crap out of her, the car won every time.

What followed couldn't be called love, hell it barely even qualified as sex, but it was a release. A way to turn all that pent up anger and aggression into something less likely to damage them both. The slapping of sweat slicked flesh and a myriad of throaty moans wasn't pretty, not even close, but it was what they needed. And if, when it came, Letty's cry of release sounded more like a fractured, broken sob then it was something they could both ignore.

Dom collapsed on top of her, his breathing ragged and his heart pounding. He was shaking almost as much as she was. "You oaky now Letty?" He gasped the words into her sweat snarled hair. "You okay?"

"I'm good." Her voice was shaky, but not trembling with rage the way it had been, now it was the exhaustion of spent emotion that caused her voice to quaver. "I'm good."

He didn't respond, just pulled her close as the two of them half walked half stumbled to the old leather couch that sat at the back of the garage and on to which they collapsed. Letty had said the words, but he doubted she believed them anymore than he did. Their lives were already so messed up, perhaps too messed up, for anything to ever be good again.

* * *

(A/N) Something a little darker this time around. Partly cus I love the song and just had to write something for it, and also because I can't picture even pre FF1 Dotty being all sweetness and light. Plus I'm almost as much of an angst whore as I am a review whore. Love you

Lamanth xx


	28. Get The Party Started

For all my girls on the forum

* * *

'**Get The Party Started' by Shirley Bassey**

_Pumping up the volume, breaking down to the beat,_

_Cruising through the west side,_

_We'll be checking the scene,_

_Boulevard is freaking as I'm coming up fast,_

_I'll be burning rubber, you'll be kissing my ass,_

_Pull up to the bumper, get out of the car,_

_License plate says Stunner #1 Superstar,_

* * *

"… three large," Hector was saying, his voice raised to carry over the excited burbling of the crowd. "Winner takes all."

At his words the noise from the throng of people grew even louder and Anna Cavanaugh was almost tempted to put her hands over her ears for fear of going deaf. Her smile widened when the arm around her waist squeezed, in a show of affection and confidence. Of course who the winner would be was already a forgone conclusion, no one could out race her Dom.

"Is this and invite only party," The voice, strong and female and pitched to carry over the gathering, cut through the warm evening air like a knife. "Or can anyone play?"

Dom spun round so fast, that Anna almost lost her balance with his sudden movement and had to cling to his arm in order to stay upright. The owner of the voice was standing just a little way back from the group, leaning casually against a sleek looking car with a magenta paint job, one leg crossed over the other and a wad of billing hanging from on hand.

There was a moment of perfect silence, time seemed to freeze and no one moved not even to breathe. No one except the newcomer, who allowed a smile, so slow and easy it was almost predatory, to pull at her lips.

Anna's first gut reaction was a sort of _what the hell? Who the hell is this?_ reaction. The fact that Dom was standing still as death at her side and hadn't seemed to have taken a breath since the stranger spoke sent her pulse racing. The woman was stunning, not pretty, her features too irregular to be considered classically beautiful, but her face was the sort that demanded a second and even a third look.

Dark haired and dark skinned, with eyes such a deep brown that in the dim light they seemed black. She had on skin-tight jeans and a leather jacket and a pair of big butt stomping boots that looked like they could kick down a wall. She was petit, perhaps 5'5" in her boots with the lithe body of dancer and all the swagger of a biker chick. Not a Juliet to sit around and wait for her Romeo sort of woman, no. This was a Bonnie who'd be out their raising hell right at her Clyde's side. Not the sort of woman to be messed with lightly.

The air seemed to buzz and hum as if it were filled with a low level electric current, and Anna knew that while the woman might be a stranger to her just about everyone else knew who she was. Knew her and saw this return as some sort of monumental occasion. With an almost audible pop the tension vanished as voice called out and a figure sprinted towards the new arrival.

"Letty!" Mia's cry was wild and joyous as she all but threw herself at the dark hair woman who opened her arms wide to catch the rushing form with flying hair and laughing eyes.

The two laughed and hugged and talked over one another at such a rate that Anna was sure that neither of them could hear what the other was saying. Especially not now the crowd had rumbled back to life and was even more deafening than before. It seemed as if everyone was calling out greetings to the new arrival, all wanting a moment of her attention.

"Long time no see." The words accompanied by a two-fingered salute from kid with mousy brown hair.

"How you living girl?" A blonde called out from her perch on a green car the colour of which matched the streaks in her hair.

"Letty, looking good lil mama." Hector said, adding a whistle for good measure as she passed.

"Couldn't stay away from me, huh?" Vince grumbled, pulling her into a quick bear hug before she was tugged out of reach

And slowly Mia was leading Letty towards where Anna and Dom still stood, pushing her way through the mass of chattering people. Chatting happily and scolding sharply and batting away any hand that tried to pull the dark haired woman from her grip and all the while Letty laughed, a sound that was low and throaty, thick and sweet as molasses. And an irrational, possessive anger suddenly filled Anna, she did not want this woman anywhere near her man.

They were only a few feet away, almost within arms reach when the sound of the gathering changed. Someone had picked up something on the airwaves, the police were all converging at one point and the race was on. Suddenly everyone was moving, shoving, fighting to get to their own cars. Anna kept a tight grip on Dom's hand as he pulled her along to where his orange Mazda sat, only letting go long enough to get in. She had a brief glimpse of Mia getting into Letty's car before everyone was moving.

Anna was shocked and more than a little confused when Dom pulled the Mazda up at the side of the road rather than rolling it up to the start line. She could count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times that he had come to a meet and not raced and on each occasion it had been a predetermined decision. The members of the team didn't like to race against each other so if Vince or Leon were driving Dom would sit out. But always it had been planed in advance.

"Why –" Anna started, her brows drown together in puzzlement but he cut her off.

"I'm not racing tonight." Dom stated, already climbing out of the car and leaving her with no choice but to follow or sit by herself. The second one was not an option.

So she followed Dom over to where the rest of his team, along with his sister, stood. Everyone watched as the four cars that would be racing pulled up to the line spray painted on the road. Anna's knowledge of cars with limited, but she recognised the blue one as a Subaru from it star insignia. The others were respectively yellow with black detailing, a completely black one with some sort of underneath lighting and, of course, Letty's car with its magenta and gold paint work.

Letty, Anna thought as the cars rumbled and throbbed waiting for Dom to call the start, she already disliked the girl. And she was sure in her own mind that she was the reason Dom was calling the race instead of sitting at the start line where he belonged. Dom raised his hand in preparation, his eyes going to each driver in turn, and the redhead was sure she saw him wink when he looked at the only female in the quartet. Then his arm came down and the cars were gone.

XXXXXXXXXX

Dom hadn't been involved in the race so who had won should not have mattered but the fact that Letty had been the first over the line, and with plenty of time to spare, irritated Anna for reasons she could not name. In the hubbub that followed the win she lost sight of Dom as all the people surged and pressed around her, pushing her back and forth until she almost lost her footing. When the crowd settled, she spotted Dom handing Letty her winnings while she lounged against the hood of her car.

As she got closer Anna saw that somewhere along the way Letty had discarded her jacket, revealing a black tank instead and Dom was running a hand lightly over her bare forearm. When she got within hearing distance of the pair she could make out Dom saying, "…you've still got the moves."

"Eat you're heart out." Letty responded with a flick of her head that sent her hair tumbling and rippling like a black wave, but she didn't move her arm from Dom's reach and kept her eyes fixed on his.

"I bet I could still take you." He said leaning closer to the race winner. The envision of personal space could have been seen as a threat, a show of dominance, but it looked more like the promise of future intimacy.

"Oh yeah," Letty's tone was sweet as honey with a low sexy rasp, the sort of voice that could make reading a shopping list sound like phone sex. "When and where?"

"Any way you'll let me." There was something dark and needy burning in his eyes. Anna had seen him look at certain cars like that, lust showing for all to see, but she'd never seen him look at a woman that way, not even her. But that was how he looked at Letty.

"Hmmhmm." Anna cleared her throat and the pair turned to look at her. But the didn't jump apart, they turned slowly sharing a long lingering look that was almost hot enough to make the air burn, and more than enough to make the redhead's temper blaze.

"Oh right." Dom said as he looked from one to the other and then back again, his eyes ending up where they had started, on Letty. "Letty this is Anna. And Anna this is Letty, she and I go back a long way."

"Anna Cavanaugh, Dom's girlfriend. Nice to meet you." Green eyes narrowed slightly as she elaborated, sticking her hand out at the same time. She wasn't sure why she had felt the need to add the label, except possibly because Dom hadn't while at the same time making it clear he and the dark haired woman shared a history.

"Sure." Letty said, her face impossible to read as she turned her head as if to survey the crowd, acting as if she hadn't seen the extended hand.

"So…?" Dom prompted, as if they had been in the middle of a discussion and he was waiting on her answer. But Anna had heard the end of their conversation, if it could even have been called such, they hadn't been talking simply flirting with eyes and hands and words.

"Nice model," Letty said as if she were conceding a point, then tilted her head slightly which sent her mass of black hair tumbling and falling over her shoulder again. Then a sly smile formed on her lips and she looked at Dom her eyes dancing with amusement. "But I doubt it's got the engine to match."

"And you're still an American muscle girl at heart I'll bet." Dom returned her grin with a knowing smile of his own, and Anna felt her irritation sharpen. They were talking about cars that much was obvious, engines and American muscle, but in someway she couldn't name Anna felt that the other girl was somehow finding fault with her. She hadn't said her name or even looked in her direction, but someway somehow, Letty was finding fault with her.

"You know me Dom, I like it old school. Something that I can ride all night long." There something like challenge in her voice, and Dom was still holding her gaze the smile on his lips almost feral.

Anna was about to speak, not because she had something to say but because she wanted Dom to stop looking at the other woman as if he might like to swallow her whole. And also she hated the way that Letty was holding his stare in a way that most people, including she herself, couldn't. Matching his aggression with a dominance of her own.

"Cops! Cops! Cops!" Jesse's yell of warning ripped through the night air and the reaction was immediate and explosive, people fled in all directions, yelling and shouting. And with a casual grace Letty pushed off the hood of her car and moved to step past Dom.

"I'll catch you later, right?" Dom asked, catching her arm and holding her as she started to walk past him. Walk not run, Anna noted sourly, even in with the threat of the police her confidence didn't waver.

"No one's ever caught me… yet." Letty's smile was equal parts sly and seductive, as she slipped out of his reach and this time there was no mistaking the challenge that her words held.

* * *

(A/N) Cus all those 'A girl from Dom's past returns, the only problem is Letty' fics piss me off no end. So I decided to do my own version, 'A girl from Dom's past returns, the only problem is she's Letty'. Also this version of the song cus it has so much power, just like Letty. Hope you guys like it.

Lamanth xx


	29. Ho Hey

For everyone who reviewed the last chapter, there were so many of you. Thank you!

* * *

'**Ho Hey' by The Lumineers**

_I've been trying to do it right,_

_I've been living a lonely life,_

_I've been sleeping here instead,_

_I've been sleeping in my bed,_

_So show me family,_

_All the blood that I would bleed,_

_I don't know where I belong,_

_I don't know where I went wrong,_

_But I can write a song,_

_I belong with you, you belong with me, you're my sweetheart,_

* * *

"_Dom, I need you. You have to come now."_

"_Mia! What –"_

"_Now Dom! I need you now!"_

And with that the line had disconnected and he hadn't been able to re-establish contact with Mia or Brian since. Cell phones were going directly to voice mail, then going to voice mail and telling him the message bank with full and the landline in their small beach fronted house just rang and rang. He would have tried email if he'd had computer accesses, which he didn't have behind the wheel of a car, and he was pretty sure there would still have been no response.

He'd tried contacting Han and Gisele, to find out if they knew anything. And while the pair of them had been worried by what he told them of Mia's demand neither of them had heard anything from Mia or Brian in months. They were also on the other side of the world, and unable to help. The same went for both Taj and Roman, both had been in regular contact with O'Conner and his wife, but neither had the faintest idea why Mia might call him suddenly out of the blue sounding almost desperate. They as well were also too far away to be of any help should something be really wrong.

For three days he drove, surviving on drive through fries and cardboard tasting burgers, stopping only when the risk of falling asleep behind the wheel became to strong to ignore. Adrenaline was surging through him making his bloodstream fizz and burn, but it wasn't the high he was used to. This time if was fear and anxiety that made his hands tremble and his breathing ragged. The last time he had felt this way was during that last horrific heist in L.A. Vince hanging from the cab of the semi as it swerved and clipped Letty's car and she…

No! He screamed in the privacy of his own skull he couldn't afford to think of Letty not now when the only thing that mattered was getting to Mia. His sweet baby sister, who was going to be fine he just had to keep remembering that. This time it was different, this time he'd be there. He would not lose another member of his family, he wouldn't.

XXXXXXXXXX

Mia knew he was going to be furious. Her frantic phone call would have driven him wild and when he saw that she, Brian and their baby girl were all perfectly fine her brother was going to completely lose it. He was going to be madder than a cut rattle snake and twice as unpredictable.

She could hear the car before she saw it, the engine growling and throbbing and telling her that she had been right and that Dom was driving like a bat out of hell. A crazed bat out of hell at that. The car rounded the corner, coming into view and screeched to a standstill as Dom practically stood on the brakes. A thing that, under normal circumstances, her engine devoted brother would never do. Mia turned to where Brian stood in the doorway, baby Jessica in his arms, and with a look warned him not to get involved. Then she went to greet her brother.

"Mia! What the hell!?" Dom exploded as he rushed to meet her and dragged her into a bone-crushing hug. His relief was evident in his actions but his words left her in no doubt that he was livid as he patted away at her as if she were a kid who's just come off her bike and he was checking for broken bones.

"I had to." Mia said slipping out of his arms and then taking hold of one large muscled forearm started dragging him towards the beach. Brian followed several paces behind the siblings, his daughter in his arms, gurgling happily to herself and waving two cubby fists in the air, inadvertently clouting her father on the chin.

"Had to!? You had to!?" Dom was still yelling, his relief at finding the little sister safe and well was quickly being replaced by an overwhelming rage. One fanatic phone call and he had dropped everything, not that there was much to drop he and Elena having parted ways some months before, and driven almost seventy-two hours straight and all his sister could do was smile at him. "Have you lost your damn mind!?"

But Mia didn't answer just kept tugging him towards the ocean, her face bright with happiness as she beamed up at him. Dom knew motherhood agreed with her but she was grinning so much that it looked as if the top of her head was going to fall off. It was not something that improved his mood. "You scare me half to death and all you can do is grin like an idiot! Do you have any idea what the past few days have been like!? The things that went through my head!? Anything could have happened to you!"

"I had to." Mia just repeated as firm ground gave was to sand under their feet, and from behind came Brian's comment of, "She really did, there was no other way."

"You stay out of this." Dom snarled at the other man, but kept his voice low in deference to his niece, then turned back to his unrepentant sibling. "No you didn't have to, if you wanted me here Mia all you had to do was ask. There is nothing you can say that can justify the living hell you've just put me through. I never thought I'd say this about my own sister, but sometimes you can be the most sadistic bitch that –"

"Dom!" Mia snapped and for a moment her expression was one of white hot anger then her features smoothed and something in her dark brown eyes softened. "Dom, just calm down. You have to understand that I had to do it this way."

"Why Mia!? Why did you have to!?" She was still pulling him along, and Dom was half tempted just wrench his arm free and turn and just head right back to his car. He knew that if he dug his heels in then there was no way Mia would be able to budge him an inch. After this little stunt it would serve her right, but he managed to resist the temptation. Barely.

"Dom." She stopped so suddenly that he stumbled slightly in his effort to avoid running right over the top of her. Something warmed and brightened in Mia's face as she turned slightly and pointed down the length of the beach. "She's why. I did it for her."

Dom hadn't noticed before, but there was someone sitting in the sand, head turned just enough to watch them. He had been so involved with Mia and her duplicity that he hadn't been able to think of anything else. Let alone see anyone standing beyond her. But now that he did see her the focus of the world seemed to shift until she was all that he saw.

Mia's lies and deceptions suddenly didn't matter at all. All the rage that had filled him to boiling point, making his blood fizz like acid only a moment before, melted away like morning mist. He wasn't aware of pulling his hand from Mia's or his own stumbling steps. He was so focused upon her that he couldn't even spare a thought for where he was putting his feet. She looked just the same as she had on that last night, white dress shirt, faded denim shorts and that wild mass of dark hair falling around her face and cascading over her shoulders. Beautiful and perfect and just waiting for him.

Impossible was the first thought, quickly followed by what did it matter so long as it was real. As long as she was real. A sudden fear gripped him, fear that if he so much as blinked he would open his eyes to find her gone once more. His heart was beating painfully in his chest, pounding away like some frightful drum as once again surged and adrenaline rushed through his bloodstream.

As he neared she slowly pushed herself to her feet, white sand clinging to her bare skin until it was brushed away with a flick of her fingers. Her eyes so dark that they seemed black in the bright sunlight remained fixed on his face as he closed the space between them. He could she that was nibbling at her lower, a nervous habit she had developed in adolescence and had never quite been able to break.

"Dom…" She said as soon as he reached her, and the sound of his name falling from her lips sent a shiver running through him, it was a sound he had been sure he would never hear again. "Dom, I can explain –"

"Shut up." He cut her off, his voice gruff with emotion, and simultaneously reached out so that he could pull her to him. Feeling her in his arms warm and alive as she appeared in his dreams, but how he'd thought forever lost to him while he was awake. "Just shut up Letty."

His lips found hers then, hot and soft and tasting just as he had remembered. Sweet cinnamon mixed with molasses. One hand splayed tightly across her back, while the other threaded through her thick hair, his fingers pulsed as they twined through ebony strands.

She nipped at his lips, her teeth pulling, tasting, her tongue lightly touching as she teased him. He groaned, pulling back a few inches, just enough to see that her eyes were fully dilated and alive with a hunger only he could satisfy. He took her mouth again, covered her lips fiercely while his grip on her tightened to a point just short of pain.

He leaned into her and the feel of her in his arms was an electric current of power that radiated into his body. Making every nerve and fibber of his being throb with need and desire. Like a cascade explosion his synapses exploded in quick succession as he lost himself in the taste and touch and scent of her.

"You're mine." He murmured into her mouth as he locked her firmly to him, every contour of her body touching his. "Mine."

* * *

(A/N) This is just in case we don't get the ending all us Dotty fans are hoping for, if things don't go the way we want in FF7 I'm gonna pretend that this happened. Plus this just seemed like the perfect Dotty song to me, I could almost hear Dom saying the words. Peace out.

Lamanth xx


	30. Stripper

For ChinaTeaSunflowers

* * *

'**Stripper' by Soho Dolls**

_Don't touch the girls, don't kiss the girls,_

_I have the right to pull the girls,_

_Get in a fight, on every night,_

_The scratches, the bruises and the bites,_

_But I wanna touch, and I wanna kiss,_

_And if you say no then I will persist,_

_With you tonight, you'll make it right,_

_You know that you're wetting my appetite,_

* * *

"Letty, how much longer do you want me to wait?" Dom asked, checking first the clock on the wall and then the watch on his wrist, hoping for a difference between the two. There wasn't, the truth was Letty, most ungirly of girls, was actually running late.

"You wouldn't want me to look a mess, would you?" Letty said without thinking, she had heard the line so many times from Mia that it had somehow entered her own brain and had now become a standard response when asked how much longer she would be. Something that caused consternation when the actual question was how long until she was done with the oil change.

"Just a get a move on will you." He muttered, taking the stairs two at a time, he knew that he shouldn't have left Mia to help Letty get ready. While Letty could be showered, changed and out of the house in ten minutes it took his sister that long just to pick out her shoes.

"Fine, fine." The two words were accompanied by what sounded like a herd of elephants crashing around the bedroom, though the noise could have resulted from Letty ransacking the wardrobe and dumping draws on the floor. "Have you seen my dress?"

"What?" Dom called out as he made the landing and started towards the bedroom. He goes to the trouble of booking a table at a nice restaurant and Letty goes and starts asking him things like that. As if he would know where her dress might be, when he got involved with her clothing it always ended up scattered over the floor while the two of them ended up otherwise occupied.

"I said," Letty repeated as she stepped into the hallway, a frown creasing her brow and irritation flashing in her onyx eyes. "Have you seen my dress?"

Dom didn't answer just looked at her blankly as if the idea of her owning a dress was one he couldn't fit his tiny male brain around. Which was ridicules, he knew full well that she owned several dresses and he was intimately acquainted with the one she was talking about. Mia liked it because, as she liked to say, every girl should have a little black dress. Dom liked it because it was short, sexy, clung like second skin and, most importantly, it was easy to take off. But Letty liked it because it was fuss free.

Short, but long sleeved and cut low at the front, it could be dressed up or dressed down and could be worn to all but the classiest of places. But Letty liked it most because it was made from a Lycra cotton blend, which meant it could sit balled up in the back of wardrobe for months, or scrunched up into a travel bag and still come out wrinkle free. Just pull it on and she was ready to go, no fuss, no hassle. Providing of course she could find the damn thing.

"My black dress," Letty huffed irritably when Dom just continued to stand there, his mouth slightly open staring at her as if he'd never seen her before in his life. "Have you seen it?"

XXXXXXXXXX

Dom knew she was speaking, he could see her lips moving, but the actual words she uttered were lost on him. She could have been telling him the house was on fire or that a meteor had dropped on his car and he wouldn't have heard it. The news that she and Hobbs were eloping and taking his father's Charger with them probably wouldn't have caused him to bat an eyelid. Even if she told him Vince had come back from the dead she'd just caught him and Mia doing the nasty on the kitchen table and sister was carrying twins he doubted he would have uttered a sound.

Even if she'd added that O'Conner was recording everything on video for posterity he might have managed, at most, a small grunt. And that was because Letty was standing in the hallway in nothing but black underwear, pearls and come fuck me heels. Compared to that nothing else much matter at all.

She looked divine, lushes, like sex on a freaking stick and suddenly going out seemed like a really stupid idea, especially compared to getting Letty alone in a room with a lockable door. Hell with the way she looked locks didn't matter so much as the next available flat surface, floor or wall he'd take either as long as it meant he could take her too.

Sometime during the past hour Mia must have forced the other young woman to sit still long enough to have make-up applied because her still moving lips were tinted a dusky rose. There was something gold simmering on her skin, extenuating the exotic lines of her face, and there was a smoky eye shadow on her lids. Bedroom eyes all hot and heated a look the spoke of pure sex.

Evidently irritated by his lack of speech Letty threw her hands up in exasperation and stalked towards him. Her stride full of slink and sway as she adjusted her step to account for the unfamiliar heels. Her hair, a wild mass of strand and curls, so black it looked gunmetal blue slipped and slithered over her shoulders like a river of dark silk. And to top it all off, a string of opera length pearls hung round her neck, shortened by the knot that had been tied into them. A knot that just sat snuggly in the oh so inviting V of her cleavage and shifted slightly with every swinging step.

Dom heard the click as he swallowed convulsively against the sudden dryness in his throat which seemed to go against all known logic because he felt he was seconds away from openly drooling. Letty, as she strode down the hallway hips swinging and cleavage bouncing, looked as if she had just stepped off the runway at a Vitoria's Secret fashion show. Give her a pair of black feather wings and his wicked little angel would be good to go.

"Dom," Letty all but yelled as she stopped in front of him and made to jab her finger into his chest. "Are you even listening to me!?"

Her finger never made contact, for quicker than a striking snake Dom had grabbed her hand then, within the space of a heartbeat, had also grabbed the rest of her. The next thing Letty knew she was up against the wall and Dom was kissing her mouth with a furious and desperate hunger. For one brief moment she considered being mad that he had ignored her words and shoving him off to once more go in search of her dress, but then Dom's tongue was caressing hers. With that Letty quickly shoved away her irritation to make room for the increasing lust and kissed him back hard enough to bruise.

Letty had more than half the buttons on his shirt undone and was running her hands over his skin, while he had almost succeeded in getting one hand into her underwear, when Dom became aware they were no longer alone in the hallway. This was because, after having her shouting ignored, Mia had given up on verbal communication and punched her older brother hard on the shoulder. The way he flinched at the contact let Mia know she had hit him hard enough to leave a mark and she wasn't a bit sorry.

The startled looks the pair were giving her showed Mia that they hadn't in fact been ignoring her they had been so wrapped up in each other, and in trying to unwrap each other, that they hadn't actually noticed her. Quite a feat considering she'd been yelling loud enough to wake the dead. But impressed though she might have been by their single mindedness it was taken a second place to her extreme irritation with the two of them.

There was so much wrong with the current situation that the slender Italian woman didn't even really know where to begin. Letty wasn't dressed, Dom was now half undressed and they should have left ten minutes ago, not to mention the two of them had been necking like a couple of kids. A display of hormone overload and lack of self-control that had led to…

"You've smeared her lipstick!" Mia almost shrieked and hit her brother a second time. She managed to convey with four words just how much trouble and grief she had had to go through just to get Letty to sit still long enough to have make-up applied.

Dom for his part just stood there staring uncomprehendingly at her while he absentmindedly ran one hand back and forth over the curve of Letty's hip as if he were petting a cat. Letty was smirking, clearly unrepentant about the state of her once flawless make-up, her gaze fixed on Dom, her dark eyes blazing and a look on her face saying she'd like nothing better than to swallow him whole.

"I thought," Mia said looking back and forth between the pair of them a frown of irritation furrowing her brow. "That you were meant to be eating out?"

"Another five minutes and he would have been." All three turned to see who had come out with the admittedly crude response. Letty sniggered, Dom smiled and Mia glade at her husband, if looks could kill he would have been six feet under. The fact that Brain O'Conner was coming out with teenage humour while holding a giggling baby girl in his arms did nothing to ender him to his wife.

"You're as bad as they are." The look on Mia's face said she was anything but amused. She looked around taking in the still petting pair pressed against the wall, her shamefaced yet still smirking husband and her happily chortling child.

Dark eyes rolled expressively, and Mia huffed out a breath and then turned on her hell and walked towards her husband. She collected her daughter and headed back down the stairs with hardly a hitch in her step. That she had given up on trying to get her brother and best friend out of the house was all too evident. Time hadn't changed Dom or Letty all that much, when they were teenagers and had looked at each other like that the only thing to do was leave them to it. Nothing had change.

It wasn't that Mia was a prude, far from it, but there were limits to what she could and would put up with. And finding her brother and best friend up against the wall in the upstairs hall of her house, well on their way to third base like a couple of horny teenagers, was a little more than she could take. And Brian bringing baby Jessie into the middle of it all had just been the cherry on top.

Brian looked from the dishevelled couple, pretending that he couldn't see Dom's wondering hands or the way Letty was all but spilling out of her bra, then glanced back over his shoulder in the direction his wife had taken. He returned his blue eyes to the pair of interrupted lovers, shrugged helplessly and headed back down the stairs and to try and sooth his wife and her hot Italian temper.

They waited until the sound of Brian's footfalls had faded, before Dom turned to Letty his smile all kinds of wicked promise and in a husky whisper asked, "Now, where were we?"

They never did make their reservation.

* * *

(A/N) I was messing around you YouTube and, as one does, ended up on the 2010 Vitoria's Secret fashion show and there was Vin Diesel sitting at the end of the runway. So naturally the end result was this and, on a personal note, this time tomorrow I will be watching FF6 and I can't wait! Dotty forever.

Lamanth xx


	31. Billy Jean

For Detective-XO

* * *

'**Billy Jean' by Michael Jackson**

_People always told me be__ careful what you do,_

_Don't go around breaking young girls' hearts,_

_And mama always told me,_

_Be careful who you love be careful what you do,_

_Because a lie becomes the truth,_

_Billy Jean is not my lover,_

_She's just a girl who says that I am the one,_

_But the kid is not my son,_

* * *

It had thrown the entire team into chaos, one little redhead with a seven month baby bump had turned their whole world on its head. She'd just turned up on the front porch, bright green eyes, a dimple in her chin and a sweet smile as she told them all the Dom was the father of her baby. Half an hour later she'd been on her way back to wherever she was staying and the whole house had been in uproar.

Mia was alternating between crying and yelling while eating ice cream directly from the tub. Jesse also had a spoon in one hand, a joint in the other and looked like he just might start crying too. The kid did not deal well with stress. Vince was stalking back and forth across the floor, muttering darkly under his breath. Unable to settle, Leon was flitting around the room picking up magazines only to discard them, strumming a few cords on the guitar before abounding that as well.

And Dom was sitting with his head in his hands, a look on his face as if he had been punched in the gut while over and over he just kept on repeating that it could not be true. Out of all of them only Letty seemed to be remotely in control.

"You know, I'm not even surprised." Letty said with a slight sigh as she pushed the hair out of her face and smiled wryly. "And isn't that just the most fucked up thing."

"Letty you can't believe…" Dom said, what little colour he had left draining from his face as he raised his head to look at her sitting all neat and composed at the table. "I would never…"

"Now is really not the time to try and deny that you screw around Dom." There was a chiding edge to her voice that made her sound like a mother talking to a disobedient toddler rather than a cheating lover.

"What?" He muttered in shock, wide eyes fixed on her in disbelief. Dom knew he was stupid to fool around with other girls, not that he it did much, and on the rare occasions when he had thought of how Letty might react, he had always imagined rage and screaming. Self-deprecation and resigned disappointment were much harder to deal with.

"Look the kid probably isn't yours, I know that." She smiled again as she spoke, but again it didn't reach her eyes. "You might be a dick but you're not stupid. But one day I wouldn't be all that shocked if someone turned up with a brat and you really were the baby daddy."

"You know? For how long?" For the second time Dom felt as if he'd just been punched in the gut, all the air left his lungs in a rush.

He had known that running around with other girls behind Letty's back was not only a stupid thing to do but also a cruel and hurtful one. And the truth was he wasn't even sure why he did it, for the most part the girls' board him and he didn't even bother to remember their names. But that still hadn't stopped him. When Dom's conscience pricked him he'd consoled himself with the knowledge that what Letty didn't know wouldn't hurt her, but it turned out she's known all along.

"Jeeze Dom, I've always known. Knew you were a player when we got together and that still didn't stop me. I've sure paid for that." Dom knew the mocking tone she used was aimed at herself rather than him, but if anything that just made it worse. Yelling would have been far easier for him to deal with, he could have handled blazing anger but didn't know how to react to the cool indifference.

"Letty, I'm sorry." Dom started, and he really was. He'd never been more sorry for anything in his life and there had been more then enough things for him to feel bad about. "I never meant to –"

"Don't let it worry you," Letty said waving away his half voiced apology with one hand while with the other she scooped up her car keys, her phone she left where it lay. "You really think I've been so fucking loyal?"

For a moment Dom didn't understand her parting words, couldn't grasp what point she was trying to make. He just watched, mouth slightly open, as she walked out of the door chin up and hips subtly swaying. She didn't acknowledge any of them or even bother to look at anyone, except Vince, as she made her exit.

Vince stopped pacing long enough to snarl at her retreating back, part of him wishing she hadn't picked that moment to be so damn cleaver but all of him understanding just why she had. Dom had hurt her, really hurt her and she was getting back at him the best way she could think of. Vince couldn't blame her for that, though he did wish she could have found a way that didn't involve him.

"You slept with her?" It was the hurt in Dom's voice that pushed him over the edge. Vince had been on edge and upset ever since that redhead bitch had shown up, he might be one of Dom's best friends but he was also one of Letty's. He exploded.

"Yeah bro I slept with her alright!" Vince snarled, anger and bitter resentment coating every word as he stared down at his best friend.

In the back of his mind he registered Mia's startled gasp, Jesse's choked exclamation and the sound of Leon swearing as he almost dropped the guitar in shock. Vince had Dom's back no matter what, they were as close as any brothers and he loved him like a brother even if he didn't always like him. But sometimes that didn't stop him from wanting to break the guy's jaw. Times like now when he hurt Letty so much and then had the nerve to act hurt because he thought she'd been unfaithful.

"How could you? She's mine." There was no heat to the words, Dom didn't even sound angry. Instead he just sounded lost and confused like a little boy, who didn't really understand what was going on. It was a response guaranteed to take Vince from raging mad to downright homicidal.

"She'd yours!? Some fucking joke, you weren't ever there!" Vince roared, and part of him wanted to leave it at that, to let Dom know what it felt like to be the jilted lover. He wanted to slam his fist into something, Dom for preference, so he would know just a fraction of the hurt he had caused _his girl_.

"I slept with her." He said it again, delighting in the knowledge that the truth he was about to state would hurt more than any physical blow. "I held her in my arms at three in the damn morning while she cried her heart out."

"What!?" Dom almost yelled in shock, jerking his head up so he could stare at his best friend. Those words had provoked him where nothing else had because the Letty he knew didn't cry. She never cried.

"Yeah, I shared a bed with while she cried because once again you'd gone off with some random chaser rather than come home to her." Vince was fumbling in his pocket for his own keys as he headed for the door, no one dared to try and stop him. "I slept next to your girl so she wouldn't have to wake up on her own because you weren't there."

The sound of the door slamming shut echoed around the house, nothing else broke the silence.

XXXXXXXXXX

It was almost three in the morning, over twelve hours later, when Letty finally returned to the house. Mia, Leon and Jesse had long since retired to bed, and Vince had called Mia saying he would not be back that night. Which meant Dom had been left to his lone vigil, not knowing whether or not Letty was actually going to come home. But she did.

She looked tired, her hair was a mess and there was a pinched tightness around her eyes and mouth. If she had been any other woman Dom would have said she looked as if she had been crying, but with Vince's words still echoing in his head the last thing he wanted to contemplate was Letty in tears.

"I…" Dom started but broke off when his voice cracked.

He was so worried about what she might say, the fear was crawling up his throat and making speech next to impossible. He was scared that the first words out of her mouth were going to be that she was down with him and that they were over. No one else in the world had the power to hurt him the way that Letty could; he loved her as he'd never loved anyone else. It was a realisation that made him understand just how much he had hurt her.

"I wasn't sure you'd come back." He finally got the words out around the lump that had taken up residency in his throat.

"Dom," And the way that she said his name made it feel as if his blood had turned to ice, she sounded so tired and distant. "I'm not sure if I have."

* * *

(A/N) And this, my dearest readers, is why I should not be allowed to get drunk off my ass with friends and then left unsupervised with a laptop. Also in the wee hours of the morning when having imbibed a little more than we should it seems like a really good idea to sing Michael Jackson karaoke, which is how the song ended up in my head. FF6 rules and I need to go and drink tea.

Lamanth xx


	32. Super Psycho Love

For lbcwoman

* * *

'**Super Psycho Love' by Simon Curtis**

_Say that you want me every day,_

_That you want me every way,_

_That you need me,_

_Got me trippin' super psycho love,_

_Aim, pull the trigger,_

_Feel the pain getting bigger,_

_Go insane from the bitter feeling,_

_Trippin' super psycho love,_

* * *

The kid hadn't been his. That was the only bright spot in the whole fucked up situation. Anna, aka the redhead bitch from hell, had stuck with her story throughout the rest of her pregnancy. But when, at long last, the baby had been born with dark hair and slanting Asian eyes even she'd realised it was pointless to keep on insisting that Dom was the father. And just like that she'd vanished from their lives as quickly as she had arrived. But the damage had already been done.

For years, unbeknownst to him, Letty had been turning a blind eye to his infidelity but the redhead incident had finally dragged it out into the open to a place where she could no longer ignore it. Money was tight and Letty's old family home had been sold when her mother moved back to Puerto Rico in order to be closer to her sisters, and those were the only two reasons why she hadn't actually moved out of the house.

When Letty had come home in the early hours of the morning on that day when his life had changed so dramatically, Dom had said he hadn't been sure if she were going to come back. Letty's cryptic response had been that she wasn't sure if she had. At the time he hadn't known what she meant, after all she'd come home how could she not be back? The next day Mia had helped her move her things into the spare room. It was small and cramped and hardly bigger than a shoebox, but to Letty it was apparently better than sharing a bed with him. And it suddenly became very clear how she could be back and yet not back.

Dom couldn't blame Letty for how she had reacted after all if the roles had been reversed he would have gone psychotic rather than becoming coldly angry. Indeed once the shock had worn off he'd damn near tried to take Vince's head off for sharing a bed with Letty regardless of the fact that nothing had or ever would go on between them. Yes, the two of them shared a very close relationship but it was that of siblings. And even as he's tried to break his jaw Dom had known the Vince would no sooner screw Letty than Dom himself would try it on with Mia. The idea was repellent.

With hindsight he knew his rage had mostly been fuelled by guilt. Because there was a part of him that said if anyone were to hold her while she wept it should have been him. But that fact remained that if it hadn't have been for him and his actions Vince would have had no reason to comfort Letty as she cried herself to sleep and Letty would have had no reason to cry. But his guilt didn't change the fact that he'd tried to put his best friend in hospital. That he would have succeeded if not for Mia's intervention only made things worse.

Mia who loved and adored him, who looked up to him as if he were some sort of hero who could do no wrong, she was his sweet baby sister who always took his side no matter what, unless the other side was Letty's. Like everyone else Mia had been stunned by the events of that horrific day, but when she had recovered she had been angrier than Dom had ever known her. She'd been furious, livid even, and she'd slapped him. It hadn't really hurt, he'd been hit a lot harder by a lot stronger people, but that he'd driven his sister to the point when she'd physically attack him had shocked Dom to the core.

That, far more than Leon's cold attitude or Jesse's disappointed looks, had really brought home just how badly he had screwed up.

And that had been almost six months ago, and things stilled no sign of getting better. Or rather there was no indications that things were ever going to go back to the way they had been before. He and Vince had patched things up, though there was still a wariness between them, and the same could be said for his relationship with Mia. Jesse and Leon had gotten over whatever it was that the incident had done to them and even Letty seemed to have moved on from it. She just showed no sign of wanting to move back into his bed.

Which was why Dom found himself leaning against the wall, a half empty bottle of corona in one hand the other occasionally swatting away which ever girl happened to sidle up next to him. Ostensibly he was doing this so he could keep a brotherly eye on Mia, making sure she didn't drink too much and no guys tried to get too friendly. The reality was he could barely keep his eyes on his sister for more than a few seconds before his gaze was drawn back to Letty.

She had started the night laughing and chatting, high from the buzz winning her race had given her. The excitement making her eyes sparkle and alcohol bringing a rosy flush to her cheeks, it was very similar to the expression she used to wear after sex. It was a comparison that managed to make him seethe with anger while at the same time filling him with such an intense longing it was like a physical ach. If he'd been drunk Dom wasn't sure he would have been able to restrain himself from just walking up to Letty and kissing her.

A course of action that probably would have ended with Letty, if he was lucky, breaking his nose, or if he were unlucky breaking his balls. Something that seemed unfair since he was sure that on some level she had forgiven him and, he was almost certain, that she wanted him back. Dom could come up with no other reason for why she was still there. It had been six months plenty of time to find somewhere else to live and another, better paying, job, and Letty had the skills that people would be falling over themselves to hire her. Yet still she stayed.

Perhaps it was for the rest of the team, Dom told himself at times. She didn't want to leave the guys who she couldn't have loved more if they had been her brothers, and Mia was the only real girl friend she had ever had. If putting up with him was the price for keeping them then that was what she would do. But then there were other times, like the moment they had shared earlier in the night, when Dom was sure that she was staying because, in spite of all that had happened, she didn't want to leave him. To leave them.

The party was just starting to get into full swing, music was pounding out from the sound system and alcohol was flowing. The team were occupied with something or someone and Mia was safe enough under Hector's watchful eyes. Dom had been heading into the kitchen and suddenly found himself sharing the doorway with Letty, who had been coming the other way. She didn't say a word, just gave him a long burning look and tilted her head slightly. The temptation to lean down and kiss her throat as her hair slipped over her shoulder was almost overwhelming.

The doorway was standard size and meant that the two of them were standing so close together that there was hardly a breath of space between them. At that moment Dom would have sworn that, even through two lairs of clothing, he could feel Letty's body heat against his skin. Her dark eyes were fixed on his face, her look all smouldering heat, and he couldn't keep from leaning just a little closer and inhaling her scent. Vanilla and cinnamon and something that was all her.

He's closed his eyes for a moment and when he had opened them Letty was gone. Just like that and leaving him with nothing but a smug glance that said she knew just what he had wanted to do and found it oh so funny. But he had felt the heat stir between them, felt the spark or whatever the hell it was that only Letty had ever been able to make him feel and he knew that she had felt it too. But it was always the same.

They only ever had moments or, more specifically, Letty would only give him moments. The two of them would find themselves alone in some dark secluded corner and all the old feeling would come rushing back. Hot lingering looks, rapid breathing as the banked fires of whatever it was that existed between them came roaring back into full blazing life. Then as quickly as it had started it would be over.

Dom would find himself standing alone wondering what the hell had happened with nothing by the memory of her body heat. Letty, meanwhile, would be off in the middle of an adoring crowed her attention all for them. Dark eyes shining as she joked and talked and acted as if he no longer even existed. She could go from hot to cold in her feelings towards him in a matter of heart beats, and he didn't have a clue how to handle it.

Whatever game they were playing, and he was sure that Letty was playing some sort of game with him, was one that had to be played on her terms. Hell, most of the time he had no idea what was going on never mind what the rules might be. Apart from the one that said Letty was in control. They shared moments it was true, but they always happened by accident, or at least he'd never caught her orchestrating one. But every time he had tried to approach her she just blew him off which was why, apart from the brief encounter earlier, he had been keeping his distance.

Dom watched as Letty dumped her empty bottle on a handy table, grabbed the hand of a random guy and dragged him onto the make shift dance floor. The sight of the guy's hands, one on her back the other on her hip dangerously close to her ass, made him want to howl with rage. Jealousy was several writhing snakes in his gut that made him seethe, and Dom's grip on his beer tightened so much that the glass threatened to shatter under the pressure. Keeping his eyes on the pair he drained the bottle in three long gulps then put the empty to one side, that last thing he needed was to get broken glass everywhere.

The sound from the music system changed, the hard pounding base changing into something with a slower tempo and a deep, throbbing beat. Dom scowled when the guy with Letty pulled her closer, but when she leaned into him a sly smile pulling at her full lips, for just a second, he thought might actually be physically sick. His only consolation was she wasn't wearing a skirt the guy to put his hand up.

The problem was her black shorts were very short and form fitting and her black top was backless, also Letty seemed to be enjoying the way he was running a hand across her bare skin. Dom screwed his eyes shut and turned away as the guy leaned in and pressed a kiss to Letty's shoulder. She threw her head back and laughed, the sound like an icicle stabbing somewhere just under his ribs and Dom thought it might actually have been less painful if she's just ripped his heart out and been done with it.

With that thought in mind he began pushing his way through the excited gathering. Not so he could pull the dancing pair apart, though he dearly would have liked to, but so he could hide in his room and avoid seeing anymore. It was funny, in a not at all funny way, because it used to be Letty alone in the bedroom while he was off with someone else. Dom snatched up a couple of beers to take with him and reflected that Letty was certainly making him pay the price for his infidelity.

XXXXXXXXXX

When the guy leaned in a second time, this time trying to kiss her lips rather than her shoulder, Letty shoved him away. She wasn't harsh or vicious about it but she was firm, the guy with his black hair and blue eyes was cute enough but he wasn't what she wanted. And since what she did want had just left the room in a sulk there was no need to carry on the floor show.

Dom had hurt her, hurt her more deeply than anyone else ever had, and for the past six months she had made him pay for that. Letty tried, and failed, to supress a wicked smirk because the truth was she had found a vindictive sort of pleasure in making Dom suffer for is mistakes. But she could see in the way he moved and the lines of his face that her punishment was taking its toll. When he looked at her she could see in his face that he finally understood first-hand the pain he had inflicted upon her.

Soon, very soon, the time was coming when she would take him back. Not that it would be easy, and she's make damn sure that this time round Dom worked hard for her affection, but take him back she would. And, if he did ever stray again, well she'd just rip out his heart and have it served to her on a plate. After all she was Letty Ortiz and she was meant to be a little bit psycho.

* * *

(A/N) First off sorry for the long wait, I've had a bad chest infection and could hardly stay awake never mind write. Second this is a follow on to the last one, just in case you couldn't guess, just cus the idea came to me. And third, I'm sorry about the ending I didn't know what to do cus the idea just left me.

Lamanth xx


	33. I Love You

For duchessduchie

* * *

'**I Love You' by Avril Lavigne**

_Do you need me?_

_You're so beautiful,_

_But that's not why I love you,_

_I'm not sure you know,_

_That the reason I love you is you,_

_Being you just you,_

_Yeah the reason I love you,_

_Is all that we've been through,_

_And that's why I love you_,

* * *

He knew he was getting to her, but he really couldn't bring himself to care. Or to stop. The heat was oppressive and unrelenting and even with the fans running on full power the inside of the garage had been turned into something akin to a furnace. It was too hot for even the flies to buzz, but the heat didn't change the fact that there were three car repairs that were due to be finished by the end of the day.

It was Vince's day off and he'd made it very clear he would be out of contact for the whole day, Dom really didn't want to know more detail. Jesse was helping Mia sort out the books for the store, the whole lot having recently been transfer to computer and his sister still didn't quit have a handle on it. Which had left just himself, Leon and Letty to get the day's work done. Or would have done if Leon hadn't been sent home suffering from an acute attack of heat stroke.

And so, boiling in her skin and feeling as if she were sweating molten glass, Letty had stripped down to a pair of faded denim shorts and a tank top that long ago might once have been white. Not the ideal outfit for a mechanic, or for keeping him focused on what he should be doing, but it was either that or end up like Leon.

So, when he had finished the last few adjustments he had to do on the Subaru he was working on, Dom took the opportunity to admire Letty, in her short shorts and clinging top, as she got on with the task at hand. He could have quite happily stared at her for the rest of the day, it wasn't just that she looked good, though she did, it was also that she looked right. Here in the garage, surrounded by car parts, wrenches and spare tires, she looked like she belonged.

With a smudge of oil on one cheek Letty fitted into the garage, and into his life, in a way no other woman ever had or would. And so he stared, even though he knew all his attention was slowly but surly driving her wild with irritation. He could see the tension building in her shoulders as she fidgeted under his gaze while trying to keep her mind on the job she was meant to be doing.

"What!?" Letty snapped as she turned to face him, "Just what the hell is it!?" His prolonged staring having pushed her beyond the point of endurance, one hand was fisted on her hip while a grease rag hung from the other and dark temper was dancing in her eyes.

"You…" Dom said, his eyes running from her face to her boots and back again, his gaze lingering on the strip of caramel skin visible between her shorts and top. "You're so damn beautiful.

Whatever snarky comeback Letty had intended to give him evaporated at his words. Instead of saying anything she just dropped her gaze and turned away from him, her dark brows furrowed and her lips pursed. Dom wasn't surprised, he was well aware that Letty had a very clear image of herself and it was not a beautiful one. She would grudgingly agree to 'passably pretty' or 'interestingly exotic' but never beautiful. He also knew that it didn't matter what he said, that she was the most perfect creature he had ever seen, she would never believe him.

"I mean it, you are." He said and knew that she would never speak to him again if he pointed out the flush that was staining her cheeks a soft dusky pink.

"Dom," And his name was accompanied by a heavy heartfelt sigh, "I'm sweating like a pig, covered in engine grease and I've ripped two nails down to the quick. There is actual blood on my hands mixing with oil and both are smeared on my clothes. Do you really think now is the right time to be talking about my appearance?"

"Yes, you're beautiful." Dom responded giving her a direct from the heart honest answer to her overly sarcastic question. And something in her face started to soften until he added, "You are beautiful and I love you."

Letty didn't understand why those three words made her suddenly feel like she wanted to slam her fist into something, Dom's face for preference, but they did. Later she would put it down to the heat, and how tired she was. The two of them were trying to do the workload of four people which was impossible and it didn't help that the temperature in the garage was probably hotter than Hades. Letty felt ill and ugly and Dom's words pushed her over the edge of sanity into full-blown crazy.

She knew he loved her, he told her so all the time and not just in words but also by his actions. Letty had spent most of her young life dreaming of the day that Dominic Toretto would say would so those three magic little words to her, and when he had she had felt like the luckiest person in the world. And once he had started to say it he hadn't seemed to want to stop and each time he said it it was as if she were hearing it for the first time all over again. So hearing him say it was a good thing and yet this time it made her want to scream. So she did.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!?" She screamed the words at him and the echoed around the confined space, filling the hot air and causing Dom's eyes to widen in shock.

"What?" He was genuinely startled, and had actually backed up half a step at Letty's sudden and unexpected outburst before he caught himself. Quickly, Dom replayed what he had said, and could find nothing to cause such a reaction.

"You love me?" Letty scoffed even though she knew it was truth, not just because he said it, it was something she felt deep in her bones. "Want to tell me why?"

"Tell you, what?" Dom was seriously mystified by what the latina was saying, not to mention the way she was acting. Even on her best days Letty had a temper that could rival his own but there was always a reason for her anger and while it was true that reason was normally him the way she was currently acting was seriously out of character.

"You of all people should know!" Which was a lie, because even she didn't know what she was screaming about, but still Letty somehow couldn't bring herself to stop. the flood gates were open and she could seemed to close them, she knew was being stupid and her actions were bordering on the psychotic but couldn't find the breaks.

"Is this some sort of challenge?" Dom stared at her in bewilderment. Sure he had known girls who demeaned constant reassurance from the guy they were with, who wanted a list of reason why it was her as opposed to the next girl, but Letty had never been one of them. Letty was Letty and that was why he loved her, because it was her and no one else, and he had thought she knew that. Maybe he had been wrong.

"Fuck you Dominic!" Letty screamed as she turned, half stumbling in her haste, as she started to walk away. Hell, who was she kidding, she was almost running because she had to get away from him before she said something that she wouldn't be able to take back. The fact that she wouldn't have meant it would be no consolation if she pushed Dom so far away that he didn't ever want to come back.

She needed to get away because she was acting like some sort of psycho and didn't know why, and it wasn't fair to inflict her craziness on Dom. After all how could she expect him to read her mind when even she couldn't make heads or tails of her irrational thoughts? She was heat sick and heartsick and taking it out on him when he had done nothing to warrant such an attack. Dear god but she was probably long overdue for a padded cell.

"Fine! You are a fascinating, bewildering and occasionally maddening woman!" Dom all but snarled as he closed the space between them, grabbed her roughly by the shoulders and dragged her round to face him. "You have a quick mind and a gigantic heart. You love your friends with everything that you have and you're loyal to a fault. You resist authority not because you're a rebel but because you're a leader by nature. You refuse to be bullied and if you believe in something will fight long past the point when anyone else would have given up."

"Dom." Letty tried to cut him off but he just kept talking right over the top her. His hands, which were now cupping her face rather than gripping her shoulders, held her in place so that she couldn't look away from him. He forced to stand face to face with him so that she could see the sincerity in his eyes as he spoke.

"You won't allow me to win an argument if you know you're right and still won't let me win even if you're the one in the wrong. You're beautiful, all the more so because you don't know it and you wear silly stripy socks under biker boots. You have a wicked sense of humour, a filthy laugh and you're not afraid to laugh at yourself. I know that you would never do anything to hurt me and that's why I trust you with my heart as well as my body. Hell woman, I even trust you with my damn car. And that Leticia Ortiz is just a small taste of the reasons that I love you."

"Oh, okay." Letty whispered, her voice muffled by the way her face was pressed against his chest as he held her tightly to him. His words had drained the all fight out of her and if he let go Letty wasn't sure she'd be able to stand on her own.

"Be angry, be crazy too. Yell at me if it makes you feel better, just don't shut me out." Dom mumbled the words into her hair, holding her close and feeling the way she trembled against him. "I can take anything but that. Whatever happens Letty, don't shut me out, I love you too much for that."

* * *

(A/N) I tried to do a follow up to the last one, but I just couldn't make it work. I couldn't even find an idea. So let's just assume that they did get back together, there was drama and understanding, some fighting and a bit of anger all topped off with a lot of hot sex. And after showing Dom as the guy who screws around I thought it was only fair to show another part of him, the one that loves Letty beyond all reason. Enjoy.

Lamanth xx


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